


We Carry The Fire

by The_Battle_Lesbian



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: AU- Next Generation, Alice Michelle Earp's Future, Alternate Universe, But this will be a full length novel, Canon compliant through Season 2, F/F, F/M, Gen, Next Generation, Not sure what else to put in tags because no spoilers, See the current faves interacting with the next generation of demon hunting badasses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-01-05 01:44:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 54,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12180471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Battle_Lesbian/pseuds/The_Battle_Lesbian
Summary: Alice Michelle Earp has spent the past 18 years in Abbotsford, British Columbia; raised by her Great Aunt Gus, she's about to graduate high school, has been accepted into a pre-med college program, and is looking forward to the life ahead of her. Until a supernatural visitor at an unauthorized poker night has her questioning the stories her great aunt has told her about her mother, Wynonna- and in turn who she is meant to be...A coming of age story done Earp- style with monsters, wit, guns, and gays.





	1. Poker Night

 

 

 

**February 23, 2016**

 

_ “Gus, did she make it there okay?” _

 

_ “Of course she did, Wynonna. Perry made sure she was safe. She was fast asleep when he arrived; I don’t think anything can faze that child. Much like her mama.” _

 

_ A strangled laugh on the other end of phone line. _

 

_ “Don’t say that. You and I both know if I was her mother she’d have no hope. With you...at least she has a chance.” _

 

_ A pause. _

 

_ “What should I tell her, Wynonna? One day she’ll be asking about her mama and daddy and I doubt she’ll buy she’s mine.” _

 

_ Another tense pause. _

 

_ “Whatever you do tell her, Gus, don’t tell her the truth. She can’t know about demons, or the Earp Curse, or anything supernatural. If she knows about it, it’ll find her, and that can never,  _ **_ever_ ** _ happen.” _

 

_ “For once, Wynonna, we seem to agree on something.” _

 

_ Even through the phone Wynonna could hear the small smile in her aunt’s response. _

 

_ “When you get the curse broken, Wynonna, and Purgatory is safe for once in its god- forsaken existence, I can bring her to meet you. If you want.” _

 

_ It felt longer than the moments it took her to respond. _

 

_ “We’ll cross that bridge if I live to see it, okay?” _

 

_ Gus swore she heard tears in the elder Earp’s voice. _

 

_ “Just raise her well, Gus. You’re her only hope...and thank you.” _

 

_ The line disconnected before Gus could respond. She hung up the landline with a sigh- no one can make Gus McCready use a damn cell phone at this age- and from the corner of her eye spotted an old, familiar framed photo. In the time-worn image were herself, Curtis, and a small girl of about 8 years of age. In her arms was a pile of tomatoes, some spilling out onto the ground as she smiles a toothy grin at Curtis. Gus gently picked up the aging wooden frame and caressed the faces behind the glass with her thumb. Spending time with Curtis in his garden had always helped Waverly calm down when Wynonna would be taken away, arrested, or institutionalized again. Back then, Gus had felt it was for the best that the sisters be apart- she was certain the talk of demons had been the product of Wynonna’s sick mind. A sick mind that would only drag Waverly down with her. _

 

_ An attack in her own home by a demon 13 years later, on Wynonna’s 27th birthday, had changed that mindset. _

 

_ She had done a lot of things right by Waverly, but not everything. She hadn’t let her be herself. An Earp. And even though Alice could not know the whole truth- behind her birth, and being sent away- Gus was positive of one thing: she would know her mama was one of the strongest people she’d ever known. _

 

_ A cry from Alice’s nursery brought Gus back to reality. She placed the old photo of Waverly and Curtis back on the shelf and walked into the kitchen to ready the formula the baby was waiting for. _

 

_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _

 

**July 19, 2034**

 

The four players sat around the coffee table in the McCready home. A couple of beers were out on the tabletop, along with a pile of coins and dollar bills in the center pot in lieu of traditional chips. Some country rock music played faintly from a stereo on the living room dresser as the cards were dealt for the next round. One of the boys snorted when he saw his hand, immediately folding.

 

“Folding already, Jimmy? That’s a crying shame,” one of the other two boys still playing taunted.

 

Jimmy glared at him, “I may be a gambler but I’m not a fool, Charlie- I know when to quit. Unlike _some_ people.”

 

“Enough blabbering and get to betting if you want to stay in this round,” the dealer interjected. She was the one girl in the playing group.

 

“Alright Alice, then what have you got to put down?” Charlie let his eyes wander and smirked.

 

“I raise you five bucks, boys- and maybe a little fun if one of you manages to win this round,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper, wiggling her eyebrows at the other three players.

 

“Nice try, Alice, but you’re not exactly my type,” the third boy, Sean, laughed, calling five dollars and placing it in the pot.

 

Alice scoffed and flipped her dark, wavy hair back over her shoulder as she responded in a mock antebellum accent, “Darling, I’m everybody’s type.” She threw a wink at Charlie, “What you got for me?”

 

Charlie dug into his jean pockets and pulled out a twenty dollar bill, throwing it into the pot, “I raise you fifteen dollars, Alice, and you better still be offering that fun. I’ll expect it when I win.”

 

Alice chuckled and rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you know when the cards are down, aye champ?”

 

She turned her eye to Sean, who placed three of a kind on the table.

 

Alice made a face and raised her eyebrows, “Not bad boy, not bad. Now what does Charlie have that’s gonna win him some of this huh?” She turned to her other opponent and bit her lower lip, “Or did he make a big, big mistake?”

 

“Doubtful,” Charlie placed his flush on the table.

 

Alice pouted, “Well,  _ darn _ , it looks like you may have got me. Can either one of you boys be a doll and tell me how these cards rank?”

 

One by one she placed her cards face up on the table. King of Spades. King of Clubs. King of Hearts. King of Diamonds. Seven of Clubs.

 

Sean sighed and let his face fall into his hands. Charlie set his jaw as Jimmy burst out laughing.

 

“Man, I  _ told  _ you she’s played before! But you fell for what has to be the oldest trick in the book hook, line, and sinker.”

 

“Shut your mouth, Jimmy!” Charlie growled through clenched teeth, “Bitch just cleared me out.” He swiped his cards from the table and angrly shuffled them together.

“Whoa, hey now, you’re in this bitch’s home. And as head bitch of tonight’s game, I reserve the right to kick your ass straight out. Now nut up and play or get gone,” Alice retorted while collecting her winnings, “You guys should be happy; you’re paying my college tuition at this rate.”

 

Jimmy and Sean laughed, but Charlie got up and grabbed his motorbike helmet.

 

“You two buffoons want to keep getting hustled, fine by me. I’m out.”

 

“Oh, wait, don’t go,” Alice pretended to plead, “A few more rounds and you’ve covered me for one pre-med textbook.”

 

Another round of laughs saw Charlie out the door as he slammed it behind him.

 

“Well, one sore loser can’t bring this party down. Gus isn’t due back for another couple hours so why don’t we make this a bit more interesting-”

 

A bloodcurdling scream from the front yard cut Alice off mid sentence. Jimmy’s eyes grew wide as he looked back and forth between the front door and Alice.

 

“Alice..what was  _ that _ …”

 

“Umm, well I’d say Gus found Charlie and ripped him a new one, except she’s definitely not home yet…”

 

Alice stood up from the couch where she was sitting and started to tiptoe towards the front window.

 

“Alice get back here! You don’t know what that was!”

 

“Shut. Up. Jimmy.” she ordered.

 

When she reached the window, she pulled back the curtain a few inches and peeked outside. No sign of Charlie, but his motorbike was lying on its side in the driveway, with his helmet rolling in circles a few yards away.

 

_ Son of a bitch… _

 

“You two stay here. I’m going outside to find that bastard.”

 

“Alice, what the hell is wrong with you? It sounded like he was ripped to fucking pieces!”

 

“Yeah, Sean, and if Gus comes home and finds a dead Charlie without any explanation I’m gonna have a lot more explaining to do than ‘had unauthorized poker night with three guys while you were out’. And don’t be dramatic- he’s probably screwing around so he can feel all macho again.”

 

Without waiting for a reply Alice grabbed an umbrella from the bin by the door and quickly but quietly exited the house.

 

The porchlight was on but it did little to illuminate the front yard this late at night. She held the umbrella up, pointed end out like a sword, and stepped slowly down the stairs onto the driveway. Her socks muffled her footfalls as she crept closer to the fallen motorbike. The helmet had stopped spinning and nothing else was moving, which made the whole yard eerily silent.

 

“Charlie?”

 

Nothing.

 

“Charlie you better not be  _ fucking _ around or you’ll be dead for real.”

 

Nothing.

 

Alice wrapped her coat around her a little tighter, partly against the cold, and partly out of nerves.

 

_ He’s just screwing around because he’s mad he got hustled by a chick. _

 

When she reached the motorbike, her heart dropped. This close to it, it was easy to see the shiny black coat was covered in fresh blood.

 

_ Okay. Probably  _ not _ screwing around. _

 

“Charlie!” Her voice now had obvious panic in it.

 

This time instead of nothing, Alice heard rustling in the woods bordering the home.

 

“Of course you would go in the creepy-ass woods. Of  _ course _ ,” she muttered to herself as she started walking towards the sound, umbrella still raised and ready, if only trembling slightly in her grip.

 

But before she could reach the trees’ edge, something large and heavy barreled into her side- knocking her onto the grass and the wind from her lungs. Gasping for breath, Alice flipped onto her back and swiped the umbrella above her at whatever had knocked down. As soon as the umbrella hit a solid form, it was yanked from her hand and thrown clear across the yard.

 

“Charlie what the f-”

 

The telling off she had planned died on her lips when she first got a good look at who-  _ what _ \- had her pinned down. Standing above her was a black figure, one she could only describe as a shadow come to life. Except this shadow had glowing amber eyes and when it spoke, it sounded like the deep, gravelly voice came from all around her head.

 

“Well, well, well, I wasn’t expecting the Heir to be this easy. An umbrella? Where’s that gun I’ve heard so much about, huh?”

 

Alice rolled to the side before its strike could hit her. Its balled fist instead hit the hard earth with enough force to crack the packed soil. “Not sure what you mean- I’m the ‘heir’ of jackshit around here. And I’ve never touched a gun in my life.” She sat up and turned to see the form staring at her, floating closer.

 

“Don’t lie to me Wynonna; where’s Peacemaker?”

 

“Where’s  _ Char _ \- hey- what,  _ Wynonna _ ?” Alice furrowed her brows together when the name the shadow man-creature-thing had spoken sunk in. Wynonna. Her mother.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

_ “Aunt Gus, where’s my mama? Everyone at school is talking about their mamas for Mother’s Day. I said I don’t have one I have an aunt but they said that’s impossible everyone has a mama. Where did she go?” _

 

_ Gus had known this day would come. Alice was five now, and naturally with Mother’s Day coming up, the other kids at school would pick out she had anything but a usual family arrangement. She sighed and patted the spot next to her on the couch, “Come have a seat dear, it sounds like it’s time I told you some things.” _

 

_ Alice climbed up onto the old green couch and sat patiently waiting as her aunt opened one of the living room dresser drawers. She pulled out some photographs and walked back over to sit beside the little girl. _

 

_ “Now Alice, I want you to understand one thing above everything else: your mama loves you with all of her heart. That’s why she wanted you to live with me. She wasn’t expecting to be blessed with a baby when she was, and she wasn’t ready. There were a lot of things she had to accomplish before she could be the mama you deserve, and where she was living wasn’t safe for you. So she did something very hard but very brave and sent you away to live with me. And that’s why you have an aunt at home, but not a mama. Do you understand, Alice?” _

 

_ The small girl blinked and nodded, pointing at the photographs. “Is that my mama?” _

 

_ Gus smiled, “Yes dear it is. Her name is Wynonna. See, you have her hair.” She ruffled the small girl’s head and held up another photograph. “And this is your daddy, his name is Henry. You have his eyes.” She gently touched Alice’s cheek. “And they both love you, my dear.” _

 

_ From that day on, Alice had dreamed about her mama and daddy- Wynonna and Henry- what they were like, what they were doing, if they were proud of her. No matter what, their names were never far from her mind. _

 

_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _

 

“Yes, Wynonna Earp, hand over the gun or the rest of your friends will be torn to shreds!” The shadow’s voice grew deeper and rougher as the sentence ended.

 

“Yeah, see, about that- you’ve got the wrong Earp. And quite frankly I’m insulted you think I look as old as my mother,” Alice got to her feet, sans umbrella, but fists up and ready to fight.

 

The shadow stopped its approach, “Mother?” It almost sounded dumbfounded.

 

Alice nodded, “Ye-ep. Alice Michelle Earp,  _ daughter  _ of Wynonna Earp. So you’re way off base here, pal.”

 

The creature tilted its head and seemed to think a moment. “Well, the daughter will do just fine. I bet my Master would absolutely  _ kill  _ for your head.”

 

It lunged, but a sharp crack from behind turned its roar into a scream of pain. Its eyes turned red and with one look behind, then back at Alice, it fled into the woods where it had come from. Hands still shaking and heart racing, Alice looked up to see Gus pointing a shotgun where the shadow had been standing. From this distance, she couldn’t read her aunt’s face, but she figured she had a better chance of surviving another encounter with Shadow Man than her aunt.

 

“Alice. In the house- now!”

 

Alice blew air from her cheeks and started walking back towards the house after Gus. She figured her aunt would have a whole host of questions for her the answer.

 

_ And it looks like I have some questions of my own. _

  
  
  
  


 


	2. Mafia Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice confronts Gus about her past, and finds that sometimes you have to find (or steal) your own answers.

**July 7, 2025**

 

 _“Aunt Gus,_ ** _why_** _can’t I live with my mama? You keep saying it’s because ‘she’s not ready’ and ‘it’s not safe’ but what does that even mean? I’m_ ** _9 years old_** _now and that’s a lot of years. A lot of years that she could get ready. I’m not even that difficult, I have only gotten a red card at school three...no..five times. But some of those boys have_ ** _waayyy_** _more so like, I’m an angel.”_

 

_ The two were eating dinner when Alice brought up the question out of the blue. Gus stopped with a fork of pot roast inches from her mouth and closed her eyes when she heard her grand niece’s question. _

 

**_Lord knows that girl is too smart for her own good. Definitely an Earp._ **

 

_ Gus placed her fork back on the plate and wiped her hands on a napkin, turning to look at the young girl who had her hands folded expectantly on the table. _

 

_ “An impish angel more like,” she smiled, “But that’s not why she sent you here. She sent you here to be safe, because where she lives is anything but. There were a lot of people who wanted to hurt her and she didn’t want them to hurt you. I know you can handle yourself, but playground bullies and nefarious adults are two different ball games, dear.” _

 

_ Alice mulled over this information. “So why do ‘nefarious adults’ want to hurt my mama?” The girl gasped and smiled wide, slapping the kitchen table with her hand and the certainty that she had figured the mystery out. “Is she a mafia boss? Some kids at school were talking about Capone and stuff. Can I tell them my mama is a mafia boss?” _

 

_ Gus chuckled at the unusual response, “No, darling, she’s not a mafia boss. But some bad people like the mafia were the danger she was scared of, yes.” _

 

_ “You said she needed time to get ready to see me. What’s she doing to get ready? She gonna kill the mafia?” _

 

_ “Ha, no, dear. No one’s killing anyone. You’re imagination is so violent sometimes, I can’t imagine where you get it…” Gus leaned back with her arms crossed. Definitely an Earp, definitely a Holliday. “She’s working hard to leave the dangerous place she lives. You know, going to school to get a good career, just like you will one day.” _

 

_ “What’s she in school for?” _

 

_ Gus thought for a moment, “Nursing. She always did want to help others, and nursing is a great way to do that.” It wasn’t completely a lie. Gus could remember a young Wynonna, 14 years old, looking up all the information she could on medical school. Hell, she’d even ranked all the Ivy League schools on her bedroom wall (not Princeton, though- she’d been bitter about their lack of a medical school for days). For once, Gus had thought, maybe Wynonna could beat it- beat everything that had happened to her, and everything she’d done. But then the night terrors started again later that week. After finding Wynonna crouched by the front window, a knife in her hands, screaming that the demons would come back for Waverly and that someone had to “protect this damn house”, Gus had called St. Victoria’s and she had been taken away for the fourth time. _

 

_ When she returned one month later, she never mentioned medical school again. _

 

_ “Well then I’m gonna be a nurse. Or a doctor. So she can be real proud.” Alice nodded her head solemnly. _

 

_ Gus snapped back to the present day and smiled, “That sounds like a mighty fine idea, Alice. Now finish your dinner before it gets cold.” _

 

_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _

 

**July 19, 2034**

 

“Gus what the  _ hell _ was that out there?” Alice slammed the front door behind her and locked it. It was only then that she remembered the rest of the her poker players who had been anxiously waiting, but when she looked at the living room it was clear that they were gone.

 

“First, watch your language in this house, young lady. Second, I told your friends to make themselves scarce; while we are most definitely having a long talk about this poker hustling gig you’ve got going on, it is far from the top priority right now,” Gus placed the shotgun on the kitchen table and turned to face her niece. “Alice, did he hurt you?”

 

Alice shrugged off her aunt’s concerned touch. “ _ It  _ didn’t get any punches in, thank you very much. But I’m pretty sure it took a nice big bite out of Charlie.”

 

Gus sighed and held the bridge of her nose as she looked down to the floor, “I’ve already alerted the cops that there was an attempted robbery or something here. Guy got spooked by your friend and killed him, then attacked you, and ran when I shot his shoulder. We may be rural, Alice, but criminals come through from time to time. Which is why I’ve  _ told  _ you Lord knows how many times that you  _ never  _ go out into those woods in the middle of the night alone.”

 

Alice stared at her great aunt as if she had grown a second head and barked out a disbelieving laugh. “Umm, wait, excuse me. Maybe I did hit my head a little hard out there because it sounds like you want me to believe that that  _ thing  _ was just some random, third-rate burglar looking for a shiny new TV set?”

 

“Well what else do you suppose it could’ve been, Alice?” There was a slight challenge to her tone.

 

“His eyes glowed  _ red _ , Gus! What kind of  _ godforsaken _ man has glowing, red eyes.” Alice could feel herself getting angrier by the word with her great aunt. How could she be so nonchalant, so  _ naive _ about what had just happened?

 

“You were scared and you saw things!” Gus shouted before she could process the words. She immediately swallowed, knowing she had made a mistake. “Alice-”

 

“Hold up. Are you saying I’m crazy?” She said the words slowly, like she was making sure she heard every one of them right.

 

“I never said you were crazy. But sometimes when we’re scared we see things that may not be there, or we may misremember-”

 

Alice ripped off her jacket and lifted the side of her tank top, exposing the growing, dark bruise on her side from where she hit the ground. “It was there,” she hissed, “And I’ll be damned if I let you keep lying to me, Gus. He thought I was  _ Wynonna _ ! This...dare-I-say  _ demonic  _ ‘burglar’ wanted my mother to bring to its ‘Master’! Now, I know nurses deal with some shit but I’m pretty sure being abducted by the spawn of Hell is not a common occurrence!” The girl could feel her face getting redder as she yelled, each word driving home the dark truth just settling on her soul: her Aunt Gus had lied to her about her mother for eighteen years. And she was prepared to keep lying to her. What else was a lie? Why was she here, and who the  _ hell  _ was Wynonna Earp?

 

“Were you just going to keep lying to me, Gus?” she asked in a cold whisper, her voice raspy from yelling and holding back the tears she felt pricking her eyes.

 

Gus closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them, it was clear she was holding back tears too. “I promised I would to keep you safe,” she answered quietly.

 

Alice scoffed, a tear escaping down her cheek. “Well you did a stellar job of that, clearly.” Before the tears could keep coming, Alice turned on her heels and ran up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her. Leaning against the door, she kicked it as hard as she could and sobbed as the tears flowed freely in the quiet. Through her blurry vision, Alice stumbled towards her nightstand. She fumbled open the top drawer and pulled out two photographs that she had kept there since she was five years old. One was of a beautiful, dark haired woman in a black leather jacket, seated on a motorcycle that looked like it got the best care the world could give. The other was of an older man leaning against a fence. He had dusty brown hair, and his clothing spoke more to “old west gunslinger” than the picture’s date of 2016. He had a black stetson on his head and a- quite frankly impressive- mustache. Alice sat back on her bed, holding the photos in one hand. With her free hand she wiped at the tears falling from her cheeks.

 

“Mama, what the  _ hell _ are you doing out there? Why am I  _ here _ , Mama?”

 

Only the photo could provide no answers.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**October 15, 2026**

 

_ Eighty pounds of trouble. That’s what Gus had come to know Alice as. Quite frankly she couldn’t help it; the kids at school always had something to say about her parents, and she was damn ready to have something to say back to them. Gus never liked to talk much about her mama and daddy. She knew they were named Wynonna and Henry. Her mama was in school to be a nurse, and her daddy ran a bar that Gus used to own. She knew she had an aunt Waverly who Gus had raised too- there were some old pictures of her around the house. She knew they lived somewhere out east (she only guessed this from overhearing the name “Calgary” while Gus was on the phone once, and when she’d gone to the library at school she’d found out it was a big city in Alberta, just east of British Columbia). But beyond that she knew squat. Her mafia boss mom dreams had been crushed a year ago- not that that stopped her from telling some kids at school that her mom  _ **_may_ ** _ know Al Capone’s grandson, just to get them to shove it. _

 

**_I’m 10 years old; whatever she’s hiding, I can take it._ **

 

_ Maybe her mom didn’t want her. Plenty of kids at school had said as much. If that was the case, so what. At least she’d know. It was better than wondering all the time. _

 

_ Gus was on a phone call with a friend, talking about gardening tips or something like that. Whatever it was, it was the perfect distraction as Alice crept up the stairs to the bedrooms. Right across the hall from her room was her aunt’s, and if there were any juicy tidbits on her family anywhere in the home, they’d be in there. She slowly opened the door, careful not to let it creak too loudly on its hinges. Slipping into the bedroom she scanned for likely hiding places. She needed documents, photos, letters- anything like that that could tell her something- anything- about her family far away. _

 

_ She rifled through the bedroom dresser drawers, but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t just her aunt’s. Closing the final drawer a bit too loud in frustration, she looked back around the room, stopping at the accordian door closet. _

 

_ Inside the closet was a whole mess of things. Clothes on hangers, a set of drawers containing various clothing articles underneath, boxes of shoes and some old hardcover books. Boxes with holiday decorations, hats, scarves, and...a weird little box with a lock. Alice knelt down on the carpeted floor and picked up the box to get a closer look. It was small, maybe a foot wide and half that deep. It didn’t look anything special- just a plain brown with a layer of dust settled on the lid. No the only thing strange was the lock. _

 

**_What does Gus have that needs a lock?_ **

 

_ Her lock picking skills were amateur, but she figured it was worth a shot. She pulled a couple bobby pins from her hair and began working at the old lock. _

 

**_Piece of junk looks as old as me._ **

 

_ Alice was so focused on the lock that she failed to notice the footsteps coming up the stairs, or hear her aunt calling her name. By the time she noticed, Gus had come into her bedroom and seen her working the lock at the foot of the closet. _

 

_ “Alice Michelle Earp what in God’s name do you think you are doing?” _

 

_ Alice’s eyes shot up and she dropped the box and bobby pins, quickly getting to her feet. “Mmm..nothing,” she mumbled, trying to nonchalantly lay her forearm on the door frame. She can’t quite read the look on her aunt’s face. There’s anger, of course, but something else. If she didn't know better, she’d say there was fear. Real fear, and Alice knew Gus didn’t get afraid. _

 

_ “Go to your room now, young lady. That’s no dessert for you tonight and you absolutely know why so I don’t feel this needs any further discussion.” She spoke quietly, but more ominously than Alice had heard before. When the girl didn’t move right away, she snapped, “Now!” _

 

_ Alice quickly walked into her room across the hall and closed the door without a word. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gus inspect the box and lock, and she could have sworn she saw her breathe a sigh of relief when she tugged the lock and it stayed put. _

 

_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _

**July 20, 2034**

 

The morning rays creeping through the curtains woke Alice up. She hadn’t bothered to set her alarm- after all, Gus had told her to take it easy. It had been far from a restful night- she didn’t remember dreams, per se, but she remembered waking up in a cold sweat a couple of times, gasping for air as she felt walls closing in on her in the dark. After the second time, she got up to turn on her desk lamp. Once the light was on, the rest of the night had been a bit easier.

 

She groaned as she sat up, feeling her sore muscles tense as she tried to stretch. Her bruised side in particular protested the movement. Wincing when her bare feet touched the cold hardwood, she shuffled out of bed and down the stairs. Restful night or not, a good breakfast could turn things around. Maybe Gus could make waffles.

 

Alice turned on the house lights as she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Maybe some maple syrup, fresh blueberries...this could still be a good morning.

 

If it wasn’t for the note on the fridge dashing all hopes of morning waffles.

 

_ Alice, _

_    I went into town to run a few errands. I figured you’d be staying in today, so I’m leaving you some space for whatever you need. Leftovers are in the fridge if you don’t feel like cooking, and there should be some ice packs in the freezer if that side starts acting up. Rest up, darling, and I’ll be home in a few hours. _

 

_                               Love, _

_                                    Aunt Gus _

 

Alice huffed and rolled her eyes. Typical- she’d try to act like nothing had happened.

 

_ What I  _ need  _ are some straight answers for once. _

 

While grabbing the bag of coffee grounds to start a morning brew, she remembered: that box. Gus was gone now, actually out of the house. And her lock picking skills weren’t so amateurish anymore. She started the coffeemaker and as it whirred she ran into the bathroom to grab a couple bobby pins before going up the stairs to her aunt’s bedroom. When she tried the door, she found it locked.

 

_ Alright, so fool her once… _

 

It took only a few seconds to get through the old door lock and she entered the bedroom, wasting no time opening the closet and searching through the boxes on shelves and the floor to find that innocuous little brown one. The one that she was now positive contained the answers she needed. Behind the Christmas and Halloween decorations on the top shelf, she saw the reflective surface of that old lock.

 

“Bingo! Come to mama…” Alice muttered to herself as she pulled the box down and knelt with it on the floor, like she had eight years earlier. This time it took mere seconds to get the rusty old lock to click open, and she wasted no further seconds opening the lid and dumping out the box’s contents. Letters, photographs, scanned copies of books with handwriting all over them, underlining some parts and circling others. One of the scanned pages caught her eye: at the top in flowing black handwriting was the phrase “If demons come for you”. The page itself seemed to be outlining protection measures- spells to ward off evil, weapons that could hurt supernatural entities, and the like. The next item was a photograph of a hooded figure, and Alice felt her blood run cold when she recognized the glowing amber eyes looking back at her. That same flowing handwriting had named it “Ascended of the Cult of Bulshar”. The final item that caught her attention (as it wasn’t full of apparently supernatural jargon she could not begin to decipher at the moment) was a short letter, written on a torn piece of notebook paper. All it said was “Gus, the curse wasn’t broken. I don’t know if it will be. Take care of her. - Wynonna”.

 

Alice let her fingers run over the name.

 

Wynonna.

 

She pocketed the letter and photograph of the hooded figure- because she knew they’d come in handy where she was going now. The envelope of that short, scrappy letter gave her her destination where she could really get some answers to what this most definitely _ not _ mafia and most  _ definitely  _ demonic nonsense was knocking on her doorstep.

 

And all she needed was a one way bus ticket to Purgatory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't get used to this rapid update schedule- I just happen to be on a roll right now. Next chapter should be fun cause you'll be seeing some old faces and meeting some (adorable) new ones!


	3. Purgatory Welcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A young woman takes a rickety bus into Purgatory on short notice to reunite with family and deal with some demon problems...hey wait a minute.

**July 20, 2034**

 

_ Dear Aunt Gus, _

 

_ I know it’s hardly polite to just up and leave without a word, so this letter is my attempt at being slightly less rude. At least so you won’t worry that I’ve been abducted by demons or whatever. Because I know you know they’re real. And I know you know I know. That’s a lot of knowing. Point is, I know my mom is not just in some “dangerous neighborhood”. Demons are after her. I don’t know why, and I don’t know what they’ve done, or what they are capable of doing, but I’ll be damned if I keep on living like I don’t know there’s something more happening out there. Maybe you can, but I can’t. I don’t know when- or if- I’ll be back to Abbotsford. Yes, I know if I’m gone UBC will drop my acceptance. And what it comes down to is this- what good is  going to college or being a doctor when the supernatural keeps wanting to take me out to get at my mom? And what kind of daughter am I if I just let her keep dealing with this shit show all on her own? Ironically, you’re the one who told me family is made of promises. I know you promised Wynonna to protect me. And you did. But now I’m an adult and fulfilling a promise I made to her when I was little- to be her daughter one day. Cause that’s the one thing I never was growing up, a daughter. Better late than never though, am I right? Besides, my career goal was to do what she does; medical school just doesn’t fit right anymore. _

 

_                                                                       Love, _

_                                                                           Alice _

  
  
  


Alice shifted uncomfortably in the bus seat. She was lucky enough to grab a corner in the back of the bus, next to the window looking out on the British Columbia countryside. Well, lucky may have been an exaggeration- there were only four other souls in the entire coach. Clearly, no one was jumping to get to Purgatory.

 

_ I still hate buses. _

 

She had on a dark, soft hoodie that she had pulled over her eyes. She wasn’t quite sure why, but she felt compelled to stay hidden. Demons probably didn’t take the bus, but she was new to this whole thing and figured it was better safe than sorry. A hiking backpack stuffed full to bursting contained everything she now owned. Clothes, toiletries, anything and everything she could think of and fit she had packed. She hugged her knees close to her, lost in thought as the rattle of the AC grate above her acted as white noise. Now that the whirlwind of emotions had settled for the day long bus ride, it started to dawn on her what she had done. She’d just up and left everything, absolutely  _ everything,  _ because of an unexplained attack, a photograph, and a letter. And she’d left Gus, the only family she really knew- that she knew for  _ sure  _ she had to count on, behind with a letter on the fridge door. Sure, it was a well written letter- Gus always did say she had a way with words like nothing she’d ever seen, but it was still a goodbye letter. Hell, with what little she knew about what she was currently barrelling towards at 60 miles per hour, maybe it might as well have been a suicide note.

 

_ Whoa there Hemingway, don’t jump the gun on that. _

 

When things got quiet, that’s when she’d feel it: the creeping anxiety that she was a damned fool. That she was doing everything wrong and she was rash, and she was reckless, and she’d ruined herself.

 

_ I just chucked college out the window in a split-second decision. _

 

But she knew there was no changing that now, even if she wanted to. And despite the fear, she didn’t want to. Maybe she was a bit crazy, or a downright idiot, but something felt right about being on that bus, heading to the most ominously named town after Hell, Michigan.

 

_ Maybe this would always have happened. Like fate. _

 

She couldn’t help but smile at that. Because that would be ridiculous.

 

…………………….

 

**July 21, 2034**

 

“Now entering Purgatory, Alberta”

 

The barely legible voice crackled over the bus intercom, waking Alice from her slumber. She groaned as she shifted to an upright position, stretching her arms and feeling the muscles in her back tighten against the strain. Buses were not meant for sleeping- especially with large, still- healing demon bruises. And even then it hadn’t been restful; another passenger had shaken her awake sometime during the night, because apparently she’d been screaming and they wanted to know if she was alright. She’d brushed it off, but she could still feel her chest tightening with the memory of walls closing in all around.

 

When the bus stopped, she departed- making note that she was the only person to do so, and the station itself was barely a lamppost (the actual light had been knocked off, so it was really just a post). Alice fished around in her hoodie pocket and pulled out some notes she’d taken on the ride over; it was a list of places and names she’d heard mentioned by Gus on the occasions she would talk about her life here. Circled at the top of the list was a bar, simply called “Shorty’s”, that Gus said she had owned briefly before selling it, and that it had been where her aunt and mother grew up. She figured if she was looking for Wynonna, this Shorty’s was the place to start.

 

Looking around the town in front of her, it was clearly small- very, very small. “Well, I guess walking around I should find it in no time..” she muttered to herself as she crossed the railroad tracks into the town center.

 

………...

 

It took barely more than a half hour to find. It looked just like an old style saloon from the 1800’s (plus or minus a few renovations), with rough wood siding and squat, high windows. An aged sign reading "Shorty's" with a longhorn bull logo hung above the entrance doors. Seeing the sign in person, Alice felt her heart jump and her hands start shaking. Her mother could be right through those doors. Standing in front of the entrance, she held tightly onto the shoulder straps of her backpack, and took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves.  _ It’s fine, she’s your mom. It’s fine. You didn’t spend 22 hours on a bus to get cold feet. _ She tried the door knob. 

 

_ Locked. Typical. _

 

Pulling the bobby pins from her hair, she carefully stuck them into the door lock.  _ Hope she can appreciate some DIY locksmithing. _ After a few seconds of fiddling the lock clicked open and Alice pushed through the doorway. Chairs were stacked upside down on tables, and only the lights above the bar were on. No one seemed to be around this early in the day. 

 

_ I guess I could wait? Someone has to show up eventually. _

 

But that plan went right out the window along with a poorly aimed bullet from around the bar. A bullet Alice figured was meant for her face. 

 

Her hands shot up instinctively in surrender. "Whoa hey! Friend here! Don't shoot!" She looked around the bar to see if she could find the mystery shooter, and while she wasn't sure what she was expecting, it wasn't the small form that peeked at her from around the far corner of the bar, pistol in both hands.

 

She couldn't have been much more than 10 years old, with her long ginger hair in a braid swung over her shoulders. Her hazel eyes were wide with fear, and even from this distance, it was evident she was trying to stop herself from shaking. 

 

Alice's face softened, "Hey, pipsqueak, I'm not here to hurt you, okay? I'm just here looking for Wynonna."

 

The little girl's face scrunched up and with a huff she cocked the pistol and held it up in shaking hands, moving out from the cover of the bar and standing as tall as she could muster. 

 

"You'll never get anywhere near her, revenant. Not unless it's so she can send you to Hell!" It was obvious she was trying to sound more sure of herself than she was, fighting to steady the quiver in her voice. 

 

Alice's hands shot back up when she heard the sound of the pistol cocking. "Hey, I already told you I'm a friend! I'm not a reverend, or whatever the hell you just called me!"

 

"Sounds like something a revenant would say."

 

"Well, could you tell me what you think a not-revenant would say? Because I'd  _ really _ like to know those magic words right about now, kid."

 

The girl glared at Alice with a look that showed her mental gears were spinning in thought, like she was considering what a not- revenant  _ would _ say in the situation, but she didn't lower the gun. 

 

"My mama is gonna be back here any second, and she can bring the pain. So  _ you _ should be leaving." She thrust the gun forward for emphasis. 

 

Alice let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, kid. I took a bus hundreds of miles to get to this little podunk town because I found out my aunt has been lying to me about who my mother really is.  _ And _ what she does. So I  _ need _ to talk to her and get things straight once and for all- talk to my mother, Wynonna."

 

The girl only seemed more confused by this explanation, and she lowered her gun with the loss of focus. "Auntie Nonna doesn't have any kids."

 

"Well-" The sound of a car door slamming stopped Alice, and she saw the little girl smile. 

 

"Here comes trouble, revenant."

 

The front door to Shorty's was kicked open and Alice found herself staring down yet another gun barrel, this time a sawed off shotgun. 

 

"Step away from my daughter and I'll make this quick."

 

Alice appraised the newcomer- a woman with long brown hair, a flowery blouse, and blue jeans. 

 

Getting a gun in her face was starting to get old.

 

"For the umpteenth time I'm  _ not  _ dangerous and I’m  _ not  _ threatening anybody! I am Alice  _ Goddamn _ Earp!" Too late to realize that yelling at the woman who was holding her at gunpoint for allegedly threatening her daughter was probably a bad idea.

 

Thoroughly expecting to just get shot at this point, Alice was surprised to see the woman's face fall and her eyes grow wide when she heard her name. She dropped the shotgun to the floor and her eyes never left Alice's, tears starting to well in them. 

 

"Oh shit," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else, and a moment later she rushed forward, pulling Alice into a tight hug. "Ohhh my god, oh my god, Alice. Alice is it really you?" She stepped back and held Alice's face in her hands. She could see the tears falling down the older woman's face, and for once she was at a loss for words. 

 

"Um. Y-yeah I'm Alice. Alice Michelle Earp. I've only been trying to tell shortstack over there who I am at gunpoint for the past few minutes," she chuckled nervously, lowering her arms to her side. She had been too taken aback to return the hug. 

 

"Oh...oh! Oh no no, Sienna. Sienna, honey, it's alright, it's Alice." She held out a hand to her daughter, beckoning her closer. Sienna carefully placed her pistol on the bar top and stepped forward to take her mother's hand. 

 

"Mama, you've never said anything about an 'Alice'. And she was saying she's Auntie Nonna's kid but then why haven't I seen her before?" Sienna said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world that the intruder was a revenant, or something else demonic, and definitely not her cousin. 

 

"Well...you're right. Mom and Nonna and I haven't..been entirely honest. I mean, when the curse wasn't broken we never thought-" She started to choke up and looked back at Alice, holding her hand gently as if she wasn't sure the girl was real, "we never thought she'd be able to come back. Here, to Purgatory. So we never told you about her. If anything, it was for Wynonna's sake..."

 

It seemed Alice wasn't the only one at a loss for words as the woman stared at her, her face unreadable; though she thought she saw disbelief, sadness, and maybe a bit of anger...

 

"Wait, Alice- what the _ hell _ are you doing here?” The woman dropped Alice’s hand as her own cut through the air as she spoke. “How did you find us, and where the hell is Gus? Oh my god tell me Gus isn't dead." Her face had gone from amazement to anger to genuine concern in the span of a few seconds, and Alice was unsure what to make of this expressiveness. 

 

"Umm Google Maps?" She offered with a shrug of her shoulders and a wide grin. "And she's not dead. She's hella pissed at me, for sure, but alive and well."

 

The woman sighed and rubbed her face with one hand while the other fiddled with a tassel on her blouse. "Um okay. Okay, so you're here now. Uh...can I ask why? Why the  _ hell _ did you run away to...here?" She gestured to the air around them.

 

"You want the honest answer?” Alice raised her eyebrows. The question was answered with an emphatic nod.

 

“Well, a demon came to my home and thought I was Wynonna. It rambled on about some gun "Peacemaker", but it tried to kill me when I- of course- didn't have it. I tried to get Gus to spill, but she wouldn't, so I went digging. Found some research she had in a box about some demon cowboys and a Bulbasaur and mom was mentioned all throughout in the notes. So I came here to get some real answers. Cause next time a silhouetto of a man comes a- knocking I'd  _ really _ like to have an idea of what to do about it." Alice took a deep breath when she finished. That was the first time she had said it all out loud. And it sounded even crazier than it did in her head. 

 

But instead of looking at her like she had lost her mind, the woman nodded solemnly. "That's my work, I gave that to her in case shit hit the fan and she needed to know how to protect you. Which, clearly, has happened. But because you're  _ clearly _ Wynonna's offspring you instead come running here at the first sign of trouble."

 

Alice was certainly not expecting the woman to smile at her at the end of that sentence, "You look just like her, you know. That _ hair _ ." She ran a hand through Alice's dark locks, and seemed to be seeing something else when she looked at the girl, far away from the bar and their time.

 

Seeing that smile she had seen countless times in the old photographs around her home, and remembering how Sienna had called her mother "Auntie Nonna", a name for this woman finally clicked into place. 

 

"You're...you're Waverly aren't you? Waverly Earp." Alice's smile grew as the woman- Waverly- nodded. 

 

"And you, Alice Michelle Earp, are my long lost niece." Waverly pulled Alice into another bear hug, "I can't believe you're really here."

 

"Well, if she's really Auntie Nonna's kid, then welcome to the Earp Clan, dude." Alice and Waverly broke apart and turned at the sound of Sienna's voice. The girl had perched herself on one of the bar stools and was holding out a shot glass of whiskey to her cousin. Her serious expression told Alice how important the offer was, and she accepted the glass with a solemn nod.  

 

Waverly was less impressed. She crossed her arms and looked at her daughter in shock, "Sienna! What did I tell you about messing with alcohol until you're 18!"

 

"I didn't drink any, Mama! I'm just giving her an 'Earp Welcome'." She held her head high and crossed her arms in a mirror image of her mother. 

 

Waverly rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You've been spending too much time around Wynonna if you know that," she muttered, turning back to face Alice, who was sipping the whiskey while watching the two interact. 

 

_ My mom sounds like a hoot. _

 

"Hey wait, how old are you, Alice?" Waverly asked, pointing to the whiskey. 

 

"Oh 18 years old, cross my heart." She set the glass on the bar and drew a cross over her chest. 

 

That answer didn’t seem to provide the peace of mind Alice was going for. "Ohh wow, okay, that's a lot of years," Waverly sighed, reaching to take a spare glass from behind the bar and pour a shot of whiskey, downing it in one gulp.

 

Alice raised an eyebrow at her. Her aunt met her eye and handed her another glass she had filled. "You might want some more before we head to the station. Introductions are gonna be a  _ doozy _ ."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to make a special shoutout to iPhone Notes for allowing me to write most of this chapter on the bus and walking between classes! Also shoutout to Brooklyn Duo who's covers of "Blackbird" and Landslide" are excellent writing music. Thank you Kat Barrell for naming Waverly and Nicole's daughter so I don't have to!
> 
> For the next chapter, you may want to take Waverly's advice and get some whiskey: there's major angst ahead. Oh and Wynonna and Alice meet...wonder how that'll pan out...
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and comments and subscriptions! Love seeing them!


	4. Deodamnatus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice takes a ride to the station, learning a lot about Purgatory and Earp lore, and meeting her family for the first time, including her gun-slinging mother.

**July 19, 2034**

**Below a Church, Somewhere, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

The slow and steady march of footsteps echoed off of the crumbling catacomb walls. The stone surface was cold and bone dry to the touch; the spots of torchlight created dancing shadows that followed the procession down the stone-carved hallway. The feet of a beaten woman dragged against the stone floor as two of the marching figures carried her. They wore black clerical robes with hoods raised and obscuring the faces. The only thing that hinted at their non-mortal nature was each’s pair of glowing, amber eyes. A third imposing figure led the two with their cargo; unlike the others, his hood was lowered to reveal a human face. He appeared to be middle-aged, with receding brown hair and a stout figure. His physique could remind one of a simple, suburban husband; his eyes, however, belied the darker truth with their ruby reflection in the torchlight.

 

The leader led the procession to an above-ground crypt situated at the end of the catacomb tunnel. The old marble had darkened and cracked over time, and what inscriptions there had been on the surface had long since eroded away. Bright green fungi covered the sides of the crypt, almost mistakable for moss. Only the lid of the crypt was cleaned and polished- from use. Behind the crypt silently stood an older man with his head held high. He was gaunt, with the skin pulled tight over his face and sharp features accentuating his hard gaze. His hair had started to thin with age, and what remained was merely white and gray wisps clinging close to the scalp. He was wearing the same type of black linen robe as the others, but unlike the approaching figures, he was decorated in silver necklaces, pendants, and rings. The largest of the pendants- a dark garnet disc- reflected the torchlight as it neared, much as the procession leader’s own eyes were. On his right hand, the man had an ornate silver gauntlet. Each finger was conical, nearly six inches in length, each ending in a sharpened claw. Small garnets and diamonds were embedded in the designs etched across it. 

 

The procession stopped at the foot of the crumbling slabs, and the two figures from the back tossed forward the barely conscious woman. She was older, likely in her forties, with black curly hair and olive skin that was still bleeding from cuts on her arms and hands. The leader grabbed her by the hair and threw her upper body onto the crypt lid, in front of the elder. She cried out with the sudden movement, and struggled to turn her face up to look at the man she had been brought before, her eyes pleading as tears fell. 

 

"Placere parcere ei! Et quod stultum! Ego autem non erit mundus cum tetigerit eam nocere. Est bonum. Placere Pater. Placere."

 

The elder, whom she had called Pater, tilted his head slightly and sighed with a small shake of disapproval. 

 

"You see,  _ filia mea _ , that is precisely the problem." His voice was quiet and raspy, but in the close walls of the church catacombs it echoed like a loudspeaker. And the venom behind the words burned like the torchfire around him.

 

The woman hung her head and pressed her face into the crypt's marble surface as her sobs began anew. 

 

"Pater noster, qui es in caelis: adveniat regnum tuum-"

 

Without a word, Pater raised his clawed hand and slashed it down the woman's neck. In that single motion she was decapitated, her head rolling off the marble crypt and landing on the floor with a heavy thud. Pater cupped his hands under the flowing stream of blood from her exposed neck, and brought the liquid up to his mouth to drink. The procession that had brought the woman knelt before him, awaiting their next orders. When he had drunk, he let out a satisfied gasp and licked the remnants of blood from his silver claws, now glowing like hellfire and steaming with heat at the touch of blood droplets. Pater growled and tossed his head back, returning with changed eyes- they were now as solid and dark red as the gem on his chest. From under his robe, a forked red tail crept out, swinging lazily in the shadows. In the same rasping voice as before, but with a new strength behind it, he addressed the procession. 

 

"Valac, your work is  _ not  _ done! We do not leave loose ends. That's three out of four. Find her. Find her, so I can feast on that traitor bitch's  _ blood! _ ”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 21, 2034**

**Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Sitting in the front passenger seat of her aunt’s red Jeep, Alice watched the buildings that made up the tiny town of Purgatory pass by. Many of them looked like they hadn’t been maintained in years, but a steady trickle of people still used the sidewalks. Old Mom and Pop stores still had “OPEN” signs facing out of their shop windows, even if the odd window was missing in some places. But something just seemed...off. The people waked a little too fast, their faces a bit too stern. The air seemed a bit too still. It was almost like the whole town was holding its breath, and she said so to her aunt, without taking her eyes off of the town.

 

Waverly sighed, “You’re not wrong. Lately things have been...weird around here. Well, weirder than they usually are, which is  _ pretty  _ weird as a given. As a rule, everyone who lives here pretends we aren’t demon central for the entire midwest of Canada, but something has even native Purgatorians- who have been dealing with this for generations, mind you- acting like someone is breathing down their necks 24/7.” She turned to glance at Alice, to see the girl had now taken her eyes off the road and was looking at her to say more. Well, Alice seemed to be here to stay, so what harm could there be in continuing?

 

“For over a hundred years, Purgatory and the entire Ghost River Triangle it sits inside of, have been cursed by a demon named Bulshar, who on Earth went by Sheriff Clootie. Your great-great-great grandfather, Wyatt Earp, came here when he heard of the corrupt sheriff, only he had  _ no  _ idea how much of an understatement that was. He was out of his league when he faced Bulshar, and instead of managing to kill him like he planned, he was instead cursed by him. Specifically, the curse says that everyone who was killed by Wyatt in life would resurrect when the Earp Heir- the first descendant of Wyatt born to each generation- turned 27. 27 because that’s how old Wyatt was when he began his lawman crusade. These resurrected outlaws we call revenants-”

 

“That’s what I thought you were! Cause revheads are always trying to get at us and Auntie Nonna cause they don’t want to go back to Hell.” Sienna was buckled in the backseat of the Jeep, and up until hearing her mom mention revenants she had been engrossed in a game on her tablet.

 

Waverly chuckled at her daughter’s excitement to share some of her knowledge, “That’s right, Sienna. Why is it you think they don’t want to go there?”

 

Sienna put down her tablet in the seat next to her and pursed her lips in thought. “Deodamnatus est nimis calida,” she smiled coyly.

 

Waverly shot her a stern look through the rearview mirror, “Watch your mouth, young lady. Remember I’m fluent in Latin.”

 

Sienna rolled her eyes and picked her tablet back up, “Yes, Mama.”

 

“Hey, what are you playing on that thing, Sienna?” Alice asked her cousin. Sienna had barely said a word throughout the entire ride, and from what little Alice had seen of her, she didn’t seem like the quiet type.

 

The little girl perked up at the question, and she turned the tablet so the screen was facing Alice. On it was a complex and seemingly precarious structure built out of wooden planks, rubber bands, levers, ramps, and other miscellaneous items. When Sienna pressed the play button on the video, a colorful marble started to run along the track of the structure. As it bounced down tubes and felled well- placed dominoes, the girl exclaimed, “It’s called a Rube- Goldberg Machine! You can build it out of anything and have little marbles go along the track. Some are really, really big and complicated. I’m not there yet, but I built this one all by myself!”

 

Alice’s eyebrows shot up at Sienna’s explanation. “That’s actually quite impressive. You like building things?”

 

Sienna nodded fervently, “Uh huh, just like my Uncle Jeremy. He taught me all about simple machines and inertia and momentum and how to use a drill even!”

 

“Okay, Jeremy did  _ not  _ tell me about the drill,” Waverly interjected.

 

Alice couldn’t help but laugh, and she could have sworn she saw her aunt flash her a smile before she continued, “Anyway, talking about revenants. There’s approximately 77 total, and so far Wynonna has managed to kill 45 of them. Her job as the Earp Heir is to kill every single one and send them back to Hell. Supposedly, if all of them are killed, the curse over our family and the Ghost River Triangle would break. Except it’s next to impossible to kill all 77 in a single lifetime. So for years we searched for a way to break the curse at the source- taking out Bulshar. Thing is, that didn’t work. We sent him to Hell yet the curse still stands. That was seven years ago. And ever since we’ve been trying to find another way. Wynonna vowed to only consider bringing you back here once the curse was broken and Purgatory was safe, so when the plan didn’t work....it broke her heart. It broke her heart more than I think it has ever been broken. And I want you to remember that when we go into the station, okay? Because Wynonna is...well she’s Wynonna. And in those seven years even more things have happened that will just...make seeing you possibly hard for her.” Seeing Waverly become so somber caught Alice off guard.

 

“You...you said  _ other _ things have happened. What else happened?”

 

But before she could press her aunt for an answer, Waverly pulled into a parking space and shifted the gears on her Jeep. “Here’s the Purgatory Municipal building, aka the cop shop. The rest of the team is inside working.” She gave her niece a forced smile and got out of the car. Despite the sick feeling settling in her stomach, Alice followed her and Sienna into the building. The halls were largely empty, with only the occasional officer passing them by with a courteous nod aimed at Waverly. Along the wall to her right were portraits of men in uniform, wearing a black Sheriff’s hat and gazing sternly at all passerby. Under each portrait was a set of dates, what she assumed were their date’s of active duty. As she continued down the hall, they changed from grainy, black and white photos to the washed out color of the 1970’s, and then most recently to the clear and bright photography of the modern age. Her eyes stopped at the last photograph, which did not yet have an end date. Out of the entire line of men, she found herself looking at a woman in that same Sheriff’s uniform, her red hair strikingly similar to Sienna’s. Before Alice could ask Waverly about the woman, a dull boom brought her attention over to a doorway that had popped open in front of them, gray smoke billowing out into the main hallway. A chorus of voices could be heard a second later:

 

“JEREMY!” yelled what sounded like an older man, followed by “Dammit, Jeremy, you better not burn down my whole department! I thought you were analyzing the makeup of the metal?” said by a woman with a bit of a drawl, but Alice couldn’t quite place where the accent was from. A third voice, presumably Jeremy, quickly responded, “Sorry, sorry, sorry it was the gas chromatography. It’s used to analyze metallic elements and it involves heat which  _ usually _ isn’t a problem-”

 

“You’re moving all of this outside,” the woman said shortly.

 

“I’m moving all of this outside, yep.” Jeremy agreed.

 

The first person who spoke, an older, dark- skinned man with a close shaven head, walked out of the smoke-filled room coughing, holding the collar of his shirt over his nose. He was closely followed by the woman from the Sheriff’s wall of portraits, who was bending her head to try to keep it out of the worst of the cloud as the gas began to dissipate, waving the remaining wisps away with her stetson. Sienna immediately ran up to her, yelling “Mom! Mom! Look who I found at Shorty’s! I thought she was revenant and was all ready to shoot her just like you taught me but it’s  _ kinda _ funny ‘cause she’s really Auntie Nonna’s  _ kid _ -”

 

“What?” The Sheriff had reflexively wrapped her arms around her daughter in a hug as soon as the small girl reached her, smiling at her excitement. But when she heard what Sienna was excited about her face immediately became serious, and her head shot up to look at Alice. Alice saw her eyes move between her and Waverly, and her aunt next to her just nodded, confirming what Sienna had told her other mom.

 

The Sheriff’s brows furrowed as she considered the implications. “Does Wynonna know yet?” she asked uneasily.

 

Waverly shook her head, “Nope, just us. Oh and by the way, Nic, your daughter almost shot our niece because you thought it was a good idea to teach her to use a gun. But that’s a discussion for another time. Is Wynonna here now?”

 

“No, she went out to get donuts for lunch. And probably some whiskey, if we’re being honest,” Nicole added with a sigh. She gave Sienna a pat on the back as she ran into the now less-smoky room to find Jeremy, who was opening the office windows to let everything air out. “She’s going to be back any minute. What on  _ Earth  _ are you going to tell her?” She added once her daughter was out of earshot, “Does Alice even know about Doc?”

 

Alice turned to Waverly, who had bowed her head, and was rubbing her hands together in what seemed to be a nervous habit. “No. No, I haven’t. I didn’t know where to begin with...that.”

 

“Who’s Doc?” Alice felt that sick feeling in her stomach blossom into her chest.

 

Nicole looked at her with what she could only describe as pity. And anguish of her own. “Waverly, may I…?” she asked, her voice low and gentle. Waverly nodded as the tears began to fall down her cheeks, “Yeah. Yeah go ahead.”

 

The Sheriff stepped forward slowly, and gestured to some chairs that had been set aside in the hall for anyone waiting to meet with a deputy. Alice took a seat, with Nicole sitting beside her. She felt her heart pounding in her chest and the tears begin to prick in the corners of her eyes. She didn’t know the name Doc, but based on who she hadn’t seen and how everyone was acting, she had a good idea of who he was. Suddenly, the photographs in her jacket pocket weighed a ton.

 

“Doc, real name John Henry Holliday, is your father, Alice. And four days ago....he was killed.” Nicole stopped and took a deep breath, fighting to hold back her own tears. Someone had to tell her, sooner rather than later, and she by fra had the most experience being the bearer of bad news.

 

“He was trying to get information on the Cult of Bulshar, specifically information on a weapon,” she continued with composure. “He got something, but one of the leaders got him first. Stabbed him in the chest. He managed to get back here, to the station, and deliver something from the cult but it was already too late. By the time paramedics got here, he was gone.” Nicole stopped to let it sink in. This was always her least favorite part of the job, but delivering this news to the girl she had last held as a newborn 18 years ago made all the previous times look like nothing.

 

Alice didn’t say a word. She didn’t think she could; her tongue felt like lead and the only thought that buzzed through her head was white noise. She hadn’t noticed that Waverly and the other man had gone back into the smoky department office, leaving her and the Sheriff alone in the hall. The two sat in silence for what felt like hours, but must have only been minutes.

 

Finally, Alice broke it, “What was he like?” It was barely a whisper, but Nicole heard. She wrapped her arm around Alice’s shoulders and pulled her close, “Oh, Alice. He was a lot of things.  _ Very _ good at poker, for one thing. One of the best gunslingers that ever lived, too. He was stubborn, but loyal. So,  _ so _ loyal. And surprisingly, pretty good sense of humor. Though half the time it wasn’t intentional- he was just so far out of his time that-” She was cut off by the sound of the front entrance to the municipal building opening, and a booming voice carrying down the hallway, “Yo, dummies, you better not have burned Black Badge to the ground! I could smell the smoke from two miles away. It is  _ rank _ .”

 

Around the corner came a woman carrying a dozen box of donuts in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. When she saw Nicole she lit up, “Yo Haughtpants, I left a blueberry cake one for you this time. I swear on this  _ beautiful  _ bottle of Jack,” she finished, giving the whiskey an appreciative smirk. Her gaze flicked to Alice, and the younger girl slowly lifted her head to meet her eyes. It was almost like looking in a mirror, the woman in front of her had the same dark, wavy hair that she had learned to deal with for 18 years. She wore a black leather jacket with tassels hanging from the sleeves, tight leather pants, and boots. Alice saw the mischief in her brown eyes falter when she saw Alice’s blue ones.

 

“Nicole, who the hell is this?” Her voice went from playful to hard and dangerous in an instant. Nicole, to her credit, didn’t seem surprised by the shift. Until now, Alice hadn’t felt the strength to move her mouth- let alone form words- but seeing the woman in front of her, who she had only dreamed of her whole life growing up, gave her the ten seconds of bravery she needed. She got quickly to her feet, unconsciously bunching her fists into her sides to stop her shaking.

 

“It’s Alice. I came to see you, Mama…..Hi.” Just as quickly as the confidence had come, Alice felt it rush away and her knees nearly buckled on the spot. She weakly held out a trembling hand for a handshake.

 

Wynonna didn’t seem to fare much better than her daughter. Her mouth began to fall open as her breathing picked up, and Nicole anticipated her friend’s loosening grip in enough time to catch the bottle of Jack Daniels before it crashed onto the floor. She wasn’t quite as quick for the box of donuts, but Wynonna managed to scramble to hold it when she felt it first slip out of her hands. A couple donuts fell to the floor as she hugged the box tight to her chest. Alice could see her mother’s face twitching as she looked for the words she wanted to say. But she was not prepared for the punch to her gut that followed.

 

“No, I’m not. Gus is your mother. Now get the hell out of here and go home.”

 

Before Alice or Nicole could say anything, Wynonna walked briskly into the Black Badge office, donut box still clutched tight and whiskey forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry- like I said, angst. But this is Doc Holliday, like Nicole said, he's way too stubborn and too loyal. Is death really gonna stop the man when his daughter has come to town? And Wynonna with her tendency to be...Wynonna.
> 
> Come yell at me about Wynonna Earp, the cast, or whatever on tumblr @the-battle-lesbian
> 
> Next chapter expect some supernatural beasts, and some team growing pains


	5. Stubborn People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice confronts Wynonna and a wolf goes flower shopping.

**July 21, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Wynonna barged into the Black Badge office and dropped the crushed box of donuts onto the nearest table. The smoke had largely dissipated out of the open windows by this point, but the acrid scent of burning metal and something sickly sweet, like citrus, still permeated the room. She wrinkled her nose at the lingering odor, “God, Jeremy, I almost wish you’d burned the place down. What the hell were you doing? I thought you said you would be ‘analyzing the compartments’ or some sh-”

 

“Wynonna, what did you say to her?” Waverly marched towards her sister, already anticipating that the elder Earp had done something regrettable

 

“Say to who?” Wynonna tried to act as casual as she could, but her finger tapping rapidly on the tabletop gave her away.

 

“You know exactly who- Alice. She’s  _ right  _ outside with Nicole. She just found out about her father, so don’t you dare make this any harder-”

 

“Hey, she chose to come here! It’s gonna be as hard as it’s gonna be for her. It’s not like it’s rainbows and sunshine over here for me, is it? She was  _ safe _ over with Gus, living a  _ normal _ life, and  _ dammit  _ it is not on me if she chose to walk away from that and into the absolute fucking  _ hellhole  _ that is Purgatory!” Wynonna’s face grew redder as she tried to keep her voice from shaking. Waverly just sighed and shook her head- anyone who knew her knew she was trying to yell her own tears away. It was what she had been doing since she found Doc alone, bleeding to death on the municipal building floor.  While she was looking for the right words to say, Dolls came up to Wynonna and gently placed an arm around her shoulders, “Hey, Earp, do you want to take a breather outside?” There wasn’t anything accusatory or angry in his tone, just concern. Wynonna silently shook her head no, her jaw clenched tight as she gripped the edge of the table.

 

“I wasn’t safe you know.”

 

Alice’s voice broke through the silence that had fallen on the Black Badge office. She stood in the doorway with Nicole waiting behind her.

 

Wynonna didn’t turn to face her daughter when she replied, “Yes you  _ were.  _ You were with Gus and  _ nowhere _ is safer than that. That’s why you were sent there. To be safe and  _ normal. _ ” 

 

“Well, hate to break it to you, but demons found me there, too. Son of a bitch did this to me-” Alice lifted up the side of her jacket and shirt to expose the dark, purple and blue bruise branded on her side. “And he wanted to do more- because he thought I was you and wanted some gun. So I thought, ‘Why not go stay with Wynonna so they can stop mixing me up with her, hmm?’ Oh, and my mom is some kind of demon hunter,  _ not  _ a nurse, which I didn’t know until two days ago. Maybe I should go get some answers from her. Get some demon- shooting tips. Hell, maybe even have a relationship, but  _ clearly  _ that doesn’t interest you,” her voice broke at the last part, but she willed the tears to stay inside. “But at the very least, you can do what you seem so intent on and teach me to keep myself safe. Hey, then I’ll leave. You’ll never have to bother with me again, I swear.”

 

When Wynonna finally turned around and saw the large bruise on Alice’s side, she felt her blood run cold. And suddenly she wanted nothing more in that moment than to put Peacemaker right to the demonic bastard’s head for even  _ thinking  _ he could touch her daughter. But those weren’t the words that came out.

 

“Fine. Yeah. Dolls will teach you to shoot, then you go back to Gus. End of story.” She still wouldn’t meet Alice’s eyes.

 

Dolls had been standing back, watching the exchange unfold. When there was a break in the talking, he spoke up. “Alice, what did you tell that demon when it called you Wynonna?”

 

“Well I told him he was wrong, obviously. That I’m her daughter, not her.”

 

“You did  _ what? _ ” Wynonna’s anger seemed to be renewed at this revelation, “What the hell were you thinking telling a demon you were my daughter?”

 

“Not getting ripped to shreds? What was I supposed to do- no one  _ told  _ me anything! I had no clue it was so super-secret!”

 

“Well, tough shit, now you can’t leave. It’s too dangerous for you to be out there if they know you’re an Earp. You’re a bargaining chip waiting to happen.”

 

“Hold up,  _ now  _ you believe I’m safer here? Two minutes ago you wanted me to skip town! How flippin’ men-”

 

“Officer Jefferson to dispatch, we’ve received reports of a disturbance outside Carla’s Flower Shop on 3rd and 6th Street. Witnesses are a describing a...large, rabid wolf throwing rocks at the shop window. Black Badge, I think this is for you guys. 10-3.” The man’s voice that came in over the station radio was heavily distorted by the old machine, but coherent enough to give Wynonna an excuse to change the subject.

 

“Right. We finish this later. I need to...go be..animal control. I’ll think of something snappy later!” Wynonna abruptly cut in after the dispatch ended. “Dolls, Waverly, Nicole, you know the drill.” She waved Peacemaker in the air to mimic rounding the others up and started to head out the door when Alice grabbed her arm and turned her around.

 

“Wait, wait, what about me? What happened to teaching me how to deal with demons to be safe? Demon dog sounds pretty level one to me.”

 

“Ha! No. Definitely at least a level five. Safe is staying here at Black Badge with Jeremy and Sienna and doing target practice with Dolls later on decidedly  _ not  _ demonic paper people.”

 

“Stay here with Sienna? Do I look like a nine year old to you?”

 

“Hey! I’m ten and three quarters!” Sienna chimed in indignantly.

 

“You came here looking for a mom, well here she is. So do what I say, and stay here...End of discussion.” The words came out haltingly, like she wasn’t sure what she should be saying to stop the conversation. But she knew she wanted it to  _ stop _ . When Alice only glared in response, Wynonna nodded and looked around at her team, “Well, let’s go fetch cerberus before he upends half of Purgatory, hmm?” And with that she walked out the door, Peacemaker in one hand and grabbing the bottle of whiskey from Nicole in the doorway with the other.

 

The Sheriff glared after Wynonna before turning back to Alice, “I’m sorry, she can be an ass when she feels emotions. Look-” She walked up to her friend’s daughter and enveloped her in a hug, Waverly placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ll talk. All of us, okay? I can’t promise she won’t be an ass for a while longer but in the meantime, you can get to know us. Even Dolls is pretty cool once you get to know him.” She smiled over at her colleague, who dipped his head to try to hide the smile that flashed across his face, “Yeah, yeah, Haught. We should be heading out after Wynonna now before she causes more mayhem and destruction than the wolf is. But yeah, Alice, we’ll all talk.” He gave her a small smile and headed out the door after Wynonna, holstering his own gun.

 

“Hey, Alice, you can have fun with me and Jeremy while they’re all out. Jeremy can tell you all about science and stuff and it’s pretty cool,” Sienna offered with a smile, and Jeremy nodded beside her. Alice couldn’t help but smile back at the young girl’s genuine offer, “Yeah, alright, that sounds cool. Show me some of what’s up around here.” She turned to look at her aunts, “And thank you. Um, go after her, from what I’ve seen she’s bound to get herself injured if left unsupervised.”

 

“Well, you’re right on the mark with that one,” Waverly smiled, and after hesitating a moment, gave Alice a quick peck on the forehead. Then she and Nicole grabbed their own weapons and headed out the door. Once it was only them three left, Alice bunched her fists into her side and let out an exasperated groan. “Sienna, you want to trade moms?”

 

Sienna looked up from a picture she had been doodling on Jeremy’s work table, “Uh, hell no.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**July 21, 2034**

**Carla’s Flower Shop, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

The casual demeanor of the officer over the dispatch radio had not done the scene that was unfolding on 3rd and 6th justice. Pedestrians had long since cleared the intersection, with one abandoned car's alarm blaring in protest to a smashed windshield. A few lampposts had been knocked askew, and the perpetrator in question was standing by the shop window to Carla's, hurling various nearby objects into the glass in what seemed to be an attempt to break it. 

 

The creature was certainly wolf-like, with thick brown fur covering its body, large canine paws for back feet, and a lupine head and toothy snout to boot. A lot like a wolf, except it stood on its hind legs-albeit with a hunch and not much grace- to gather and throw stones and debris at the window with furry, humanoid hands. 

 

"Ugh, why can't demons keep their pets on a damn leash?" Wynonna muttered as she loaded Peacemaker's barrel, "I hate putting down dogs. Even the demonic ones." Waverly patted her sister's shoulder as she shot her a quick pout, "So, what's the plan then? Fish in a barrel?" 

 

Wynonna thought for a moment, then nodded at her sister, "Fish in a barrel. Let's make this quick, guys, because I need to have a very serious conversation with  _ one _ of you-" she eyed Waverly before continuing, "-and we need a new game plan. So let's take care of Fido here and get back to Black Badge before Jeremy combusts."

 

"Why would he combust?" Nicole asked warily, unholstering her firearm and preparing to set a perimeter with Dolls in order to corner the wolf.

 

"Come on, Nicole. Sienna talks circles around him and she's 10. How is he gonna manage Alice?" 

 

"You're right, let's make this quick."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 21, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“See, this here is me. You can tell because of the long orange hair. And I am banishing all the revheads to Hell with my powers so Auntie Nonna doesn't have to do it anymore. She shouldn’t have to do it anymore, anyways. You can see her cracking.” Sienna scribbled cracks in the corner of her drawing for emphasis.

 

“Cracking?” Alice asked. She was sitting in one of the office chairs next to Sienna at the expansive table she figured originally sat in a conference room. Jeremy was bent over another table across the room, staring intently at something on the surface. She was pretty sure he wouldn't notice if the room caught fire.

 

“Yeah, cracking. Especially since Doc died, you know? She loved him; she’d never, ever say it but everyone knows it’s true. I think that was probably the biggest crack of all, when that happened. But he’s still here, I know it.” Sienna took a brown colored pencil and began sketching curled vertical lines in quick succession.

 

“Yeah, I’ve heard it can be that way when someone dies. I guess I’m kind of jealous, you know? You got to know him so you can miss him. He’s my  _ dad _ and I can’t even imagine his voice. I never even said hello. So it just feels like a weird void to me.” Alice wrapped her arms around herself, as she often found herself doing when she felt vulnerable.

 

Sienna stopped drawing what appeared to be a large mustache and looked up at her cousin, “It’s never too late to get to know someone, you know. Especially stubborn people. They’re like cats; act like they don’t care about you, but they never go away.”

 

Alice furrowed her brow and was about to ask what Sienna had meant when her thoughts were interrupted by Jeremy yelping and bolting to his feet, shaking his hand in the air. “Jiminy  _ crickets  _ that’s sharp!” He stuck the cut finger in his mouth quickly to try to soothe the burning, and when that didn’t he hissed and started rifling through some wall cabinets for a first aid kit.

 

“Yo, you need some help, Einstein?” Alice got to her feet and walked over to help Jeremy find the kit, which she had noticed had been placed under his desk with the sticky note ‘Don’t die- Dolls’ on the lid, “Looks like someone has your back.”

 

“Oh, thank you Alice. Aw, Dolls never told me he moved it. He’s so sweet…” Jeremy seemed to get lost for a moment, before clearing his throat and placing the kit on the table, opening it to get a bandage for his still bleeding finger.

 

“What were you messing with that got you that good?” Alice couldn’t help but peek over his shoulder at the artifact lying on the table. It was a dagger, about a foot long blade and hilt combined, intricately carved silver designs with a dark red gemstone secured that the base of the blade. The blade itself seemed simple enough, polished iron with minute serrations on the edge.

 

Jeremy noticed her looking and stepped out of the way so she could get a better view, “It’s what Doc got us. It’s supposed to contain critical info for how to defeat Bulshar, and that’s why I’ve been- well trying to- analyze what it’s made from. See the blade here  _ looks  _ like iron, but it’s not. It contains high levels of dysprosium and praseodymium, the first of which doesn’t even  _ occur  _ naturally anywhere on Earth. And-” he held his cut finger over the blade and squeezed until a  drop of blood fell onto it. As soon as the blood made contact, the knife blade began to sizzle, and in moments the blood had boiled away. Jeremy then took his other hand and gently tapped the blade, demonstrating that it was not hot to the touch, “-it really likes blood. Human blood is the preference, but really any variation thereof will do.”

 

Alice’s eyes had grown wide when she saw the blood evaporate on contact with the blade, and she looked back at Jeremy with her mouth slightly agape. “Wait, you said it contains elements not naturally occurring on Earth. Do you think it’s alien?”

 

“Oh no, silly, that’d be ridiculous!” Jeremy laughed, “No, I think it’s from Hell.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 21, 2034**

**Carla’s Flower Shop, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Nicole and Dolls headed off in two opposite direction around the block, one down 3rd avenue and one down 6th street. Other officers had already set up barricades to keep onlookers out of the town block, and it was at these barricades that the Sheriff and Agent Dolls drew their weapons and held them at the ready, just in case the hellhound decided to go their routes for escape. Back at the street intersection, Waverly stepped back to the far side from the flower shop, shotgun at the ready to guide the wolf towards Nicole or Dolls if it bolted. Wynonna cocked Peacemaker and stepped towards the wolf. 

 

She whistled to gets its attention, "Hey! Old Yeller, over here! I've got a bone to pick with you."

 

At the sound of her voice, the wolf whipped its head around to glare at her, and with a snarl it hurled a large rock at the shop window, shattering the glass. The creature leapt through the hole and into the shop, leaving Wynonna running after it.

 

Looking through the frame of what used to be the window, she saw the wolf digging frantically through the display flowers behind the register. She carefully stepped through the window frame, avoiding the broken shards of glass sticking out at odd angles. In her experience, too many supernatural creatures got overly excited at the scent of fresh blood.

 

“Pet shop’s a mile east, no milkbones here,” she kept her voice low and stepped carefully, trying not to startle the creature. If it heard her, it didn’t pay her any mind, instead digging through bundles of roses and daffodils wrapped for sale. Abruptly, it made a sound that almost resembled a chuckle, but came out more as a huff. Using its front hands, it carefully plucked out some large chrysanthemums from one bouquet and placed them behind its ears, getting the stems caught in its fur so they would stay in place.

 

Wynonna had seen a lot, but this was new. “Uhh, Bonnaroo's a bit further south, if that’s your aim, flower child.”

 

The wolf looked at her for the first time since entering the shop and opened its mouth in a roar. A second later, it leapt forward, claws outstretched. Wynonna shot and heard the creature shriek, but then felt it barrel into her and knock her to her side. She heard the paws scramble over the glass shards as it fled the shop, and the ensuing commotion as it encountered the other three agents waiting for it. A loud curse from Dolls told her it had gotten away, and she propped herself up gingerly on the flower shop floor to survey the damage.

 

“Well that went perfectly,” she muttered to herself, “Good day. Good day.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really Jeremy?? From /Hell/?? And what could that wolf have been up to anyways? Too many questions!


	6. Waking Up the Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old faces get reacquainted. Black magic happens under a church. A dragon puppy makes an appearance.

**July 21, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“Well, that went about as well as a blackout- drunk Vegas marriage. Oh- no offense,” Wynonna held up her hand at Nicole with a grimace, who just pursed her lips and glared at the eldest Earp. “That was like, twenty years ago, Wynonna. And you’re certainly one to talk; what was that about what you and face- tattoo did back in the day?” The Sheriff shot her sister-in-law a wry smirk.

 

“Hush, Nicole. Sienna has ears like a hawk, you know,” Waverly gently nudged her partner. And to prove the point, Sienna stuck her head out from the Black Badge Office’s open door and called, “Mama, can you come translate some ancient Sumerian, please?”

 

“What on Earth do you need ancient Sumerian for?” Waverly asked her daughter, who answered by rolling her eyes with a dramatic sigh and beckoning the adults closer with her hand. “Alice and I are helping Jeremy with his  _ re-search _ . I’ve got the Latin down but ancient Sumerian still kicks my ass-oh- sorry Mom, my butt.” She gave her best smile to Nicole when she cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at the little girl’s language, “But please, pretty please, come help.”

 

“Of course I’ll come help, sweetie, just update us on what you guys are looking for,” Waverly walked ahead of the rest of the group and followed Sienna into the office. Wynonna turned back to Nicole, “Did you guys ever figure out why she says ‘ _ research _ ’ in a British accent?” Nicole just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, “No idea. But it’s adorable so we just let her do it.” Wynonna nodded, “Damn right, it’s the cutest. Well, let’s go see what Miss Marple has to show us.” She addressed the last sentence to everyone and headed towards the office, where Sienna could be heard excitedly explaining something about metals.

 

“So see, Mama, it’s  _ not  _ iron in the blade- it’s made of dystopium and, and, pray-sodium which don’t even occur naturally in Earth’s crust. They need temperatures that are way too hot, like center of the Earth hot-”

 

“-Or hellfire hot. Hence, why I’m betting that’s where they were forged.” Jeremy interjected, “And it’s actually made of  _ dysprosium _ and  _ praseodymium _ \- uh, but thank you for the thorough explanation, Sienna. It was clear what you meant.” He quickly added on the last part, remembering the time two years ago when he had corrected her pronunciation of Iblis ( _ “An ibis is a wading bird, Sienna” _ ) and she had burst into tears.

 

“Don’t worry, Jeremy. I’m almost 11 so I don’t cry anymore. Tell it like it is,” Sienna reassured him sternly before turning back to the dagger lying in a beige linen cloth placed on the large conference table. Waverly and Jeremy were standing on either side of her, Waverly absorbing everything she was told and Jeremy helping to fill in the gaps Sienna left. Alice was leaning back in one of the office chairs, her feet kicked up on an empty desk and crossed at the ankles. Propped up in her lap was a large, vellum- bound tombe whose pages she carefully flipped through, so as not to crack any of the illustrations or Latin captions. On the desk by her feet was a pile of similarly old books of varying sizes and thicknesses. “Yo, Sienna- what kind of demon am I looking for again? They all look pretty similarly...demonic to me. Maybe this book is too vague.” She was about to close the volume when Sienna’s shout stopped her, “Don’t you  _ dare _ insult my grimoire! The who’s who of demon species is in there, I’m sure it has who we’re looking for. Read the captions and see which ones mention an interest in metal, blacksmithing, or weapons.”

 

“Great idea, squirt, except I can read English and just enough Spanish to get through a taquería menu. Not Latin, so this is gibberish to me.”

 

“If you see “porro faber ferrarius” or “metallum” anywhere, put a sticky note.” The small girl’s impatience was palpable.

 

“Aye, aye, tiny captain,” Alice gave a salute from her chair and picked up the post-it stack from her desk.

 

“Whoa, why is the grimoire out?” Wynonna asked when she walked in and saw the child-sized book being meticulously flipped through, “We’ve actually got some headway into this fudging cult?” The woman couldn’t hide the smile from breaking across her face. Jeremy returned a smile bashfully and absently rubbed his neck, “I think we may actually be getting somewhere, yeah. I mean, I’ll have to be buried six-feet under before I stop working my tail off to make sure the clue Doc died for is used to its fullest ext-”

 

“Holy shiii...take mushroom, that’s a pimped up Bowie knife! Is that a real ruby?” Wynonna interrupted the scientist before he could ramble on, leaning over the table edge to get a closer look at the artifact. She reached forward with her index finger to touch the hilt, only to have her hand quickly slapped away by Waverly, “Don’t touch the demon dagger; we still don’t know who made it, or what it’s for. It already took a bite out of Jeremy and we need  _ you _ in one piece. And that’s a garnet, actually.”

 

“Okay, red gemstone, same difference. Do we know what all these little-” she waved her finger over the dagger’s hilt, where the silver had been carved into small, intricate swirling characters interspersed with triangular batons grouped in various configurations, “-are about?”

 

“That’s the ancient Sumerian. I can recognize it but I can’t read it,” Sienna sighed, looking reasonably put out that the ancient writing had stopped her investigation.

 

“And I’m not exactly fluent. This has some characters even I’ve never seen. From what I can tell it says “For the Lord…..with blood….deed is done,” Waverly added. “So, if I had to guess, maybe ritualistic? I mean it _ was  _ stolen from a cult.”

 

“Alice is helping me find out who could’ve made it. I’m hoping for Hephaestus, the Greek God.” Sienna remarked, pointing over to where Alice was gently leafing through the large book. When she heard her name, she swivelled around to face the others, and gave a small awkward wave when Wynonna met her eye.

 

“I’m glad to see you’re making yourself comfortable with all of this,” Waverly smiled at her niece. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s quite the learning curve. But you’re not the first who’s had to play catch-up: Nicole knows all about that, don’t you, love?”

 

“Oh boy, I do. And I seem to remember it being even  _ more  _ difficult because  _ somebody  _ was fighting tooth and nail to make sure I stayed in the dark,” Nicole gave Waverly a soft smile, and Waverly returned it with her best innocent grin, “One of ten thousand ways to say ‘I love you’ is how I like to remember it.”

 

Wynonna rolled her eyes and did her best fake gag, “As you can see, they’re the most emotionally well- adjusted of all of us.” She didn’t look at Alice when she spoke, but the girl knew the statement was directed at her. She didn’t know her mother all that well, but she could have almost sworn it sounded like an apology.  _ “I’m not that emotionally well-adjusted. I’m sorry I’m being an asshole.” _ Alice felt the corner of her mouth rise up in a small grin. Maybe it wasn’t all lost. Especially now that she was stuck here.

 

“Okay, we get it, my moms are gooey. But you guys, I haven’t even told you the best part! Whoever made the dagger left their signature. See look here-” she pointed fervently at a small, triangular indentation in the base of the blade. It was almost obscured by the hilt, but when held at the right angle against the fluorescent lights, it was unmistakable.

 

“I’m thinking it’s an arrow or something, which would make some sense cause that’s another weapon-”

 

“That’s not an arrow, Sienna.” Wynonna interrupted her niece, her tone unusually quiet and grave. She had seen that mark before, over 18 years ago. She could still remember the woman’s pale neck, marred by the bruise. She could remember not feeling her legs, the mustiness of the cellars, and Bethany’s dying screams. “That’s a spade.”

 

The room went deathly quiet as the revelation sunk in. The color drained from Nicole’s face and she subconsciously rubbed a small scar above her left eyebrow. Waverly wrapped an arm around Sienna and pulled her daughter closer, like she wanted to keep her safe. Dolls bowed his head, his face unreadable. Only Jeremy, Alice, and Sienna did not recognize the symbol’s maker.

 

“Who’s maker’s mark is a spade?” Alice asked quietly, placing the book on the desk and getting up from her lonesome chair to walk towards the rest of the group and the offending dagger.

“Jack the Ripper,” Nicole muttered, like his name left a bitter taste on her tongue, “He’s a Revenant. Wynonna sent him back to Hell 18 years ago.”

 

“Jack the Ripper?” Alice parroted, not quite believing her ears, “Yeah- of course- why not? Okay, but he was a medical school dropout, not a blacksmith. So what’s with the bedazzled dagger?”

 

“I guess he picked up a new hobby when he was sent down. He did like to call himself the ‘Jack of Knives’, so I guess I’m not terribly surprised…” Waverly had started gently rubbing her hand on Sienna’s shoulder in a comforting gesture, though the small girl seemed unfazed by the Jack the Ripper revelation. If anything, she seemed disappointed. “So no Greek God?”

 

“Nope, sorry Sienna. Just Hell’s newest weaponsmith,” Wynonna still seemed to be somewhere else, and Alice found herself wondering what this Revenant had been like on Earth. What kind of demon could make Wynonna, who fought the likes of them for a living, stop dead?

 

“I’m glad he found a new hobby, though. He was a  _ really _ shitty doctor.” There was the normal Wynonna.

 

“So does this mean he’s back? On Earth, that is?” Nicole asked quickly, flashing Waverly a worried look. Waverly shook her head, “I’m highly doubtful of that. The Earp curse is luckily pretty straightforward in that way. He won’t resurrect until the next heir-”

 

“Me.” Alice interjected. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Wynonna flinch.

 

“Yes, you, Alice. Until Alice turns 27, there is no way he could be back on Earth.”

 

“And there’s no way he’s ever getting that chance. This curse will be broken once and for all long before that birthday rolls around.” Wynonna seemed to be directing the statement to the dagger laid out on the table, as if Jack could hear the promise from far down below. “You said the inscription or whatever was addressed to ‘my Lord’; maybe someone commissioned it and he made it for them. Someone who’s now involved in the Cult of Bulshar.”

 

“Well that someone is probably, most definitely, a demon- the knife isn’t too fond of being held by a human. It prefers humans on the blade end, if you know what I mean,” Jeremy piped up.

 

“Okay, then we can be reasonably sure there’s another hotshot demon running the cult. Probably has been doing it for Bulshar in his absence. We figured there had to be one to keep the whole operation going,” Wynonna pulled the linen cloth over the dagger, covering the hilt and the spade carved into the base of the blade. She couldn’t stand to look at it anymore.

 

“Yeah, and whoever that demon is, they’re the one who killed Doc,” Dolls ran his hand along the back of an ancient- looking revolver he had holstered on his side, opposite the standard issue police pistol he usually used. “So it sounds like our next order of business is finding out who Bulshar’s right hand man is.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 21, 2034**

**Church Catacombs, Ghost River Triangle**

 

_ “Summone, summone, summone Bulshar de inferno. In hoc vitae speculo ostende faciem tuam. Velum est tenuis, Et infernum unum sunt terram, ostende faciem tuam statim!”  _ The elderly man let the blood drip from his claws across the polished surface of an obsidian mirror as he chanted. The only source of light in the cavern came from two kerosene lamps nailed into the rock ceiling, which swung gently as if moved by a breeze.

 

_ “Summone, summone, summone Bulshar de inferno. In hoc vitae speculo ostende faciem tuam statim!” _

 

The surface of the mirror rippled and swirled, the blood smeared across it evaporating in a cloud of steam to reveal a ghastly face underneath the reflective surface. The face looking back at the summoner was most certainly not a human one; The head had a vaguely humanoid appearance, except for the fact that its skin was scaly and a deep burgundy hue with black mottling. On top of its head was a crown of horns curling in every which direction, and two large fangs jutted out from the creature’s bottom lips. These fangs caused its face to be contorted in a permanent sneer, one that now addressed the man who called him.

 

“Malphas, you better have good news for me. The Leonids are growing stronger; I can feel them even down here. But our time tonight will be short- the veil will only stay thin for a few moments. How many items have you retrieved?”

 

The summoner, Malphas, sighed and gave his best placating smile to the demon in the mirror, “I have secured two items, my Lord Bulshar. Jezebel’s Ring, stored safely on my person-” he held up his non- clawed hand, the ring finger of which had an ancient gold ring wrapped around it. A small, glittering emerald was secured in the center. “-and the hound Wormwood stays in my own quarters.” He turned his head to look down behind him, where a draconic creature the size of a sheepdog, lay on the floor of the cavern chewing into a black felt hat. “My Lord should consider this a most generous sacrifice, as the creature is absolutely foul smelling and drools bile like a bulldog.”

 

Bulshar, however, did not seem pleased by this news, “TWO items, Malphas! The peak of the Leonids is FOUR months away! You better be hot on the trail of my final four items because the storm will not WAIT for your laziness! What have the Chosen been doing all this time; you have an army at your disposal, Malphas. What. Is. The. Delay?”

 

“We had a slight….setback, with one of the Chosen. Turned traitor. And Armageddon was stolen. I am prioritizing here, Lord.” It was evident Malphas was grateful for the separation between him and Bulshar, as the demon roared in frustration at this news. “Even my knife, Malphas? Tell me the traitor has been destroyed, NOW!”

 

“I vow to be honest, my Lord, and honestly- no, the traitor has eluded the best of your trackers. She is concealing herself somehow. But don’t worry, I marked her with a parting gift that should make her  _ quite _ easy to find. The Earps may take care of her for us, the undiscriminating buffoons. And her collaborators have been killed. She is the only fugitive remaining.” Malphas snatched the black hat away from Wormwood, who yelped in protest. He held it up to the scrying mirror for Bulshar to see. “Your old friend, Doc Holliday, finally made a bet he couldn’t win, my Lord.”

 

Bulshar grinned when he saw the beaten and slobbery hat, black ooze dangling from its brim. “At least you can deliver one piece of good news. And speaking of the Earps, we cannot risk them getting on to us any further. I think it’s time you summoned my little present for Wynonna; besides, you’ll need her too when the Leonids hit. She is absolutely  _ dying _ to say hello...But, I must go now; the veil is thickening again. Get my items, Malphas. And next time I’m called, the traitor better be dead and my knife returned!”

 

“Yes, my Lord. Your will is my command.” Malphas placed the hat on the altar next to the scrying mirror as it went dark once again. Wormwood groaned and crawled away to find something new to play with in the depths of the catacombs, possibly a human skull.

 

“Yes, my  _ Lord _ , I will retrieve that wonderful knife you had to give the  _ abominable  _ name of Armageddon. You incompetent fool!” Malphas spat at the mirror, his eyes burning red in anger, “I do all the work while you take a  _ bloody _ vacation! Better than Lucifer my  _ ass _ .”

 

“Pater Castrum?” Malphas turned towards the entrance to his catacomb cul-de-sac to see a black robed figure standing there, head bowed in respect.

 

“Speak up, brother Valac, do you have news on the traitor bitch?”

 

“Alas not, Pater. She still is hidden. But we do have information on the location of the Eye of Saint Ephrem.”

 

Malphas perked up when he heard of of Bulshar’s precious items mentioned, “Excellent, brother. Go to the meeting chamber- I will join you shortly. I have some quick business to attend to first.”

 

The robed man, Valac, bowed and scurried away at the dismissal. Malphas turned back to the scrying mirror laid out on his altar. Pushing the old hat aside, he grabbed some glass jars stuffed with dried herbs from some of the dilapidated wood shelves. Ground dandelion, mashed poplar buds, a healthy amount of rowan leaf. He spread the herbs across the dark glass of the mirror and took a small knife to his own wrist. The blood that oozed out was black as tar, and he let it drip across the mirror while beginning the incantation.

 

_ “Summone, summone, summone ad societatum civium mortale quod soror mea, factum ex infernum. Redde ei corpore, redde ei spiritum, redde ei imperium, redde ei partum. Summone illa!” _

 

Malphas took a few steps back from the altar as a thick, black fog rose from the mirror. In seconds it had grown into an impenetrable mass, swirling into itself like a tornado. From the center of the black fog, a pair of red eyes appeared and glowered at Malphas, as if it they were unhappy to be woken from their slumber.

 

“Welcome back, my dear. Your body will form in minutes, so do not fret. It should look just as you left it. And when you get your footing- and your feet- you know what to do.”

 

The black fog seemed to growl before speaking for the first time in a deep, reverberating voice, “Get. Wynonna.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to the universe for giving me an actual rare astronomical event occurring in the year this story takes place! Yes, in November 2034 the Leonid Meteor Shower peaks in North America. And yes Bulshar named his ceremonial knife Armageddon because he's extra as fuck. Also omg what did Malphas summon?! And what are he and Bulshar up to? Who is the traitor? What in tarnation was Doc doing before he died? Stay tuned....


	7. Six Is a Crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice sees the Homestead for the first time, and an unexpected visitor comes knocking.

**July 21, 2034**

 

Her bare feet stumbled over the uneven terrain; the twisting tree roots, loose stones, and low- growing vegetation created obstacles she couldn’t even be bothered to avoid, instead trampling through them while trying not to lose her balance or slow down. Her feet had long since grown numb from the constant running and the unnatural chill in the air. She was bloody, and her lungs burned from panting in too forcefully, but she didn’t slow down. She couldn’t slow down.

 

_ Keep running. They’re right behind. Keep running. They’ll kill you too. _

 

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. She couldn’t quite remember what  _ it  _ was, but she knew this was wrong. Running wasn’t part of the plan. Something had gone so very, very wrong. She could remember gunshots, a woman shrieking, two men facing each other down- but was one of them even a man? His eyes had glowed red and his voice had sounded too loud for his body. Then she could only remember blood. So much blood. Was someone stabbed? Was she stabbed? She quickly patted down her side and chest to check for wounds, leaving bloody handprints on the white gown. No, she wasn’t stabbed. How had she gotten here?

 

The girl stopped running for a moment to try to get her bearings. She couldn’t recall getting into this sparse woodland.

 

_ Why can’t I remember anything? Oh, god, what is happening to me?  _ Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she frantically looked around- what for, she couldn’t say.

 

She’d reached the edge of the woodland where a single lane road cut through the trees. No street lamps surrounded it, and the asphalt was cracked and bleached with age. The moon had risen into the night sky a couple of hours ago, and constellations painted the inky black surrounding it. A light breeze rustled the fir trees, but otherwise the world was deathly silent. No birds sang, no bugs could be heard whirring. The silence was only broken by a single vehicle, red and looking a bit beaten down, speeding down the country road.

 

She couldn’t say what motivated her, but she started to run in the direction the vehicle was heading, careful to stay hidden by the trees. Wherever this car was going, it would probably be civilization. And the rumbling in her stomach and throbbing in her shoulder told her she needed someone’s help as soon as possible.

 

………………………………………………….

 

“I’m going to be honest with you, Alice, the homestead has gotten pretty crowded over the years,” Waverly spoke over her shoulder to the girl in the backseat. Wynonna was sitting in the front passenger seat by her sister, staring intently down as she shined the barrel of her gun, while crammed in the small backseat were Nicole and Alice, with Sienna squished in the middle.

 

“You don’t say.” Alice deadpanned, trying to move her legs to get her circulation going again.

 

“It’s not this bad, I promise. We still have a guest bedroom so that’s where you’ll be,” Sienna assured her cousin, wriggling her hand out from where it was trapped to pat her arm. “I think it used to be grandaddy’s room, right?”

 

“Yeah, we don’t like to go in there all that much,” Wynonna muttered under her breath, not taking her eyes off her current task.

 

“Is our grandfather away a lot?” Alice asked Sienna, figuring the young girl would give her a straight answer. Sienna ducked her head and rubbed her hands together, much like Waverly would do when she was nervous, “Actually, he died. Long, long ago. I never met him. Some Revenants, I think it was.”

 

“Oh.” Alice now understood why her mother and aunt avoided the room.

 

The rest of the ride continued in silence. Alice was thankful for it- it gave her time to think. Over the past twelve hours she had not only met her mother and aunt, but a cousin she never knew she had, had learned of her father’s death, and had helped identify what must be a hell of a nasty Revenant judging by reactions at the station. Oh, and she’d learned what the heck a Revenant even was. At this time just a few days ago, she was most concerned about what to pack for her dormitory in the fall. 

 

_ Oh yeah, that’s not happening… _

 

She sighed and pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket for the first time all day: 50 unread text messages, 10 missed calls, 50+ FaceBook notifications-

 

_ I probably should’ve given my friends a heads up. _

 

Most of the attempts at contact were from her closest friend back in Abbotsford, Michaela. She didn’t even know how to begin explaining what had happened to her. ‘My family is cursed by demons and I’m currently stuck in a town called Purgatory because they have started hunting me too. My mom is a piece of work, I have gay aunts, and my cousin is a tiny genius. We have a knife forged in Hell that really likes human sacrifices, so that’s new. Oh yeah, and it was made by Jack the Ripper. Cause why not?’ The exhausted part of Alice just wanted to send her friend that and leave it to whatever she responded with. But she decided to take the more tactful approach.

 

**Alice:** yo I’m so sorry Michaela for not responding- a family emergency came up and I had to leave town for a while. I don’t know when I’ll be back, honestly. Shit’s pretty crazy. I really can’t explain right now, but I’m alive. Xo

 

That would have to hold her over for now.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Alice thought she saw a flash of white through the trees on the side of the road. But in an instant it was gone, so she chalked it up to being tired.

 

……………………………………………………..

 

Alice couldn’t say the Earp Homestead wasn’t befitting its owners: an old, wooden ranch-style home on a vast ten acre property. A dilapidated barn was out back, and at the entrance to the property was an arch with the name “Earp” sketched from wrought iron above. The wrap- around porch had a swing and a couple of chairs, and it looked like the exterior had recently received a new coat of paint. In a way, it was quaint. Waverly pulled her Jeep up into the driveway and shifted into park. Alice wasted no time getting out of the cramped vehicle and opening the trunk to grab her overstuffed backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and started walking towards the front steps of the home.

 

_ I guess it’s my home now, too. _

 

She opened the front door and stepped into what must be the family room. The furniture all looked antique for the most part, but well kept. When she flicked on the lights, the whole room had a warm glow to it. Homely, maybe even comforting. Alice dropped her backpack on the nearest chair and took the walkway to the kitchen and dining room. A couple of drawings were stuck to the fridge with magnets, both obviously done by Sienna. There were some photos, too. One that looked to be fairly recent of Waverly and Wynonna. Another older one of Nicole cradling a swaddled infant, a tiny puff of orange hair poking out from the blanket. Waverly was next to her, kissing the baby’s forehead. Then there was one that seemed far older than the others; it was black and white, and looked to be taken on old- style film. There were three girls wearing gowns as they walked through a meadow. Alice could swear she recognized the youngest one- she had to be young Waverly. One of the two older girls then had to be Wynonna, but who was the third?

 

_ Is there another sister? _

 

Alice heard the front door creak open as the others made their way inside. Sienna came scurrying into the kitchen, shoving past Alice to open the fridge door. She pulled out a kid’s box of chocolate milk and stabbed the straw through the opening with the finesse that comes from routine.

 

“Whoa, hey there, shorty. What’s with the milk rush?”

 

Sienna stopped sipping for a moment, “I always have a chocolate milk before bed because it’s the best thing to stop nightmares.”

 

“You have nightmares?” Alice’s voice was surprised but gentle. Sienna seemed so chipper all the time, it was hard to imagine her losing sleep over scary dreams.

 

“Well, not anymore. Because I drink a chocolate milk. But I used to real bad, yeah. I would even sleep walk, apparently. I don’t know what I was dreaming about cause I could never remember, but I would always wake up really tired. Mom said chocolate milk helped her with nightmares when she was my age, so I started doing that.” Sienna slurped the remains of her milk box and threw the empty carton away. “Do you want some? If you have nightmares too it may help.”

 

Alice chuckled, “Thank you, but I’m fine. I don’t get them often.”

 

“But you got them recently, didn’t you?”

 

“Well...yeah, the past couple nights I’ve had some vague, nightmare-ish type dreams. How did you know that?”

 

“You got the same look in your eyes I did. Very, very tired.” Sienna opened the fridge and pulled out another chocolate milk carton. She opened the straw and stuck it in, handing the box to Alice, “Drink.”

 

Alice took the offering and sipped. It couldn’t hurt to try, though she was sure the nightmares would pass on their own.  _ They’re probably just because I was, you know, attacked by a demon. I think most people would get nightmares. _

 

“You were a cute little baby, Sienna,” Alice pointed to the photograph on the refrigerator. Sienna smiled, “Yeah, I was a tiny pumpkin. That was taken I think about a week after I was found.”

 

“Found? What do you mean?” Alice asked before she realized her cousin maybe was being kept in the dark still about some things. But Sienna answered before she could try to clarify, “I’m adopted. Auntie Nonna came into Black Badge one day and the old Sheriff, Sheriff Nedley, he stopped her and he said something had been left at the station overnight, with a card that just said “Please give to the Earps”. It was me. Mom and Mama decided to adopt me because Auntie Nonna was too busy, I think. I’m glad they picked me. So my birthday is actually my adoption day, cause no one knows exactly when I was born. Oh wait- did you think one of my moms  _ intentionally  _ got pregnant? No  _ way _ \- they said they weren’t having kids ‘till all the demons were gone.  _ I _ was a surprise.”

 

“But the hair-”

 

“Happy accident, according to Mama,” Sienna grinned.

 

“Is Sienna regaling you with family stories?” Nicole stuck her head in the kitchen from the family room, “Between all of us there are  _ quite  _ a few interesting ones. One of my favorites is the time Jeremy tried to do a binding spell- but of course he’s Jeremy- so instead of binding the supernatural target safely in containment, he bound himself to Dolls and Doc- his two  _ favorite _ men in the world. Meanwhile, they were being chased by ghost cowboys who wanted to kill Doc for being...well, Doc.” She laughed at the memory as it was told to her by the boys, “Oh, I wish I was there to see that. But I was with Wynonna, and I honestly don’t remember much of what happened later that day…”

 

“Good, because we don’t talk about that!” Wynonna called from the family room.

 

“Okay...well, Nicole, can you tell me the story behind that girl?” Alice pointed to the girl who appeared to be the eldest in the old photograph of the Earp sisters. She saw Nicole clench her jaw, and she seemed to think through her next words quite carefully before speaking, “There is a story there, I won’t lie. But I think it’s a story you need to hear from your mother. And it may take some time before she’s ready to tell it.” Nicole said it softly, but firmly, and despite her own burning curiosity Alice knew the older woman was right; pushing her mother would be completely futile, and probably dangerous.

 

“Alright. Well, I want to find out someday. Preferably before I’m 30.”

 

“It may take Wynonna that long to finally come around. She’s stubborn that way,” Nicole gave her niece a small smile.

 

“Well, now I know where I get it.” Alice was about to ask where the guest bedroom was so she could unpack and get ready for bed when a frantic knocking shook the front door on its hinges. Wynonna immediately cocked and aimed her gun at the entrance, “Whoever you are, you better have a damn good reason for coming to  _ my  _ home unannounced.” Nicole pulled her own gun and stood in front of the two girls, blocking them in the kitchen. Waverly had grabbed the nearest object she could turn into a makeshift weapon, and this time it was an umbrella.

 

“It can’t be a Revenant- they can’t get on our land,” Sienna whispered to Alice, “But there are a  _ lot _ of nasties that can…”

 

Wynonna put her hand on the door handle slowly, and with a quick glance at Waverly and Nicole to see if they were ready, she opened the door and held her gun at the forehead of the bloody, disheveled girl standing there. She was young, around Alice’s age, and dressed only in a simple white linen nightgown with a frayed knapsack over her shoulders. The gown was torn at various seams and smeared with bloody handprints. The girl’s hair was matted and small leaves and twigs had gotten caught in the curls. Her eyes were wide and her breathing fast, and she didn’t seem to notice any pain from her still bleeding feet as she stumbled into the home, straight past the still-pointed revolver. The girl fell onto the couch and hugged onto the cushions tightly, as if she was trying to get her bearings. The three adult women lowered their weapons, but it was Waverly who stepped forward first. She knelt down beside the girl, whose face was currently buried in one of the couch’s decorative pillows. She was careful to keep some distance, since she wasn’t sure how the newcomer would react to someone in her space- or strangers.

 

“Hey...hi, my name is Waverly. Do you have a name?” She spoke gently, and smiled when the girl looked over at her. Tears stained her face and there were red marks where she had been pressing her face into the pillow’s flowery design.

 

“E-Eva, I think,” she spoke almost inaudibly.

 

“Eva. That’s a pretty name. Why do you seem unsure?”

 

This question caused the girl to start sobbing again, “I don’t remember. I can’t remember and I don’t know why.”

 

With this revelation, Waverly looked up at Wynonna and Nicole. They all knew there was no way they could turn this girl back out. And based on her appearance, they couldn’t help but wonder where she may have come from.

 

“Does ‘Bulshar’ ring a bell to you?” Wynonna asked. Waverly made a shushing motion at her sister. The color drained from Eva’s face at the mention of the demon’s name. Not finding the words, all she could muster in response was a hesitant nod.

 

Waverly sighed, “Well, that settles that. I think it’d be a good idea if you stayed here tonight, okay Eva? Get a shower and some sleep, food if you want any, and then tomorrow we can call in some experts- they’re like doctors- who maybe can help you. Does that sound good?”

 

Eva nodded and held the pillow close to her chest. Back in the kitchen, Alice turned to Sienna and whispered, “You guys have two guest bedrooms? Cause now it’s getting  _ really _ crowded.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** If you're like me, then it's hard to visualize faces without a reference. So here are the models for Eva and Sienna, respectively:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B5SdHEV_baVZbFY2RFJneUtUZTNnVXVnak5LQURES1dVOGg4  
> https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B5SdHEV_baVZTkdDS2xSZFhYbUt6YktmWjZhbzdXMjFfRmNR
> 
> If you like the story, please leave kudos and especially comments! It's so wonderful as a writer to see what y'all think- especially if you have any theories or ideas of what may happen next! My ultimate goal is to have this entire thing finished before season 3 airs, so probably there will be 1-2 updates per week. No set schedule though, but I'm trying to stay consistent. Thanks!


	8. Stone Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tries to figure out what's up with Eva, and a surprise visitor throws everything into turmoil.

**July 22, 2034**

**Earp Homestead, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“Follow my finger, okay Eva?” Dolls put down the thin flashlight he had been shining across the girl’s eyes and held up an index finger. He moved his hand slowly back and forth in front of her, watching to see if she tracked it. “Well, it doesn’t look like she suffered any head trauma. The memory loss could have a supernatural origin, especially if she escaped from the cult like you suspect.”

 

“But why would they wipe her memories?” Nicole asked from where she was seated next to Waverly on the couch. Eva was clinging to Waverly’s hand as she was being examined. Since the night before, she had gotten some sleep and had changed out of her dirty nightgown and into an old Purgatory High t-shirt and pair of sweatpants from Waverly’s closet. The girl hadn’t spoken much since she arrived, but that fact didn’t seem to surprise Dolls. 

 

“It’s possible she was a threat. You said she looked like she had just run a marathon when she arrived last night, right?”

 

“Right. And she had cuts all over her hands and feet.” Nicole confirmed. 

 

“And she was yelling in her sleep last night. Something about how ‘they are coming for her’.” Alice chimed in from where she stood in the doorway to the kitchen. “The walls here are thin, and Sienna’s room is just down the hall from mine.”

 

Sienna had given up her bed last night for the refugee to sleep in, and herself had slept on the living room couch. She was now sitting cross- legged on a chair across the coffee table from the sofa where Eva was, and she had Wynonna standing behind her with a hand resting idly on the chair’s back. 

 

“Eva, who was coming?” Waverly asked gently.

 

The girl rubbed her eyes with her free hand and took a shaky breath, “I...I can’t remember. They were chasing me, so I had to keep running. I think...I think they were gonna kill me.” Tears started to fall again.

 

“Well, they won’t kill you as long as you’re here. The Homestead is one of the safest places in Purgatory,” Wynonna reassured her.  She then turned to look at Dolls. “So, if her memory loss is supernatural, how do we get it back?”

 

“Well, it may come back in its own time. But it’s also not necessarily supernatural. During my time in special ops, I saw enough soldiers coming back from the front lines to know post- traumatic stress when I see it. In severe cases, there can be amnesia. And if that’s what this is- which is what I’m suspecting- then her memories will return in time. Piece by piece. But it will be rough- there’s a reason her brain is choosing to forget it all.”

 

Alice couldn’t help but feel her heart break at the sight of the confused girl, unable to remember where she had come from, and why she had left. Barely even able to remember her own name. She only had the nebulous idea that it was something very, very bad that made her leave, and in a way that just made it worse. At least when you know what the problem is, you can do something about it. But when you can barely remember who you are? Then what can you do?

 

“So, what’s the plan now? Clearly there is something up with this cult that we should be looking into.” Alice was surprised by the confidence in her own voice. She had literally just discovered demons were real a few days ago, yet she felt herself falling easily into the role of “demon hunter” today. 

 

_ Bet ‘Demon Hunter’ doesn’t pay as well as doctor, but oh well- what can you do? It isn’t supposed to be about money, right? _

 

“ _ We _ will be looking into it. Starting with where that knife came from and finding its owner.  _ You _ will stick to behind the scenes research with Sienna, where it’s safe.” Wynonna similarly seemed to be trying to settle into her own maternal role- at least the saying ‘no’ part of it. 

 

“What? No way- teach me how to shoot and I’ll be way more useful out with you guys. More manpower is always a good thing!” 

 

“Uh  _ no _ . Research. Safety. Until further notice.”

 

Alice was about to protest when she felt the air temperature around her drop suddenly. She hugged herself tight and startled when she could see her own breath clouding in front of her eyes. The others seemed similarly baffled by the sudden change. 

 

“Who the hell touched the thermostat?” Alice shivered and handed a blanket over to Eva so she could wrap it around her body. The question was mostly to hide her own growing concern- she knew this was not a normal temperature drop.

 

“That ain’t the thermostat,” Dolls commented ominously, his hand on his holstered gun as he checked out the windows. Ice had started to form on the glass panes, creeping from the corners to spread and cover the entire surface. Outside, the sky seemed to have grown unusually dark for the morning. Yet, there didn’t seem to be a cloud in sight. 

 

“Mama, Revenants can’t get on our land. How can they be here?” Sienna had run over to her moms and was holding onto Nicole tightly. For the first time, Alice saw her little cousin truly afraid. 

 

“There’s things other than Revenants that may want some Earp action,” Wynonna muttered as she lifted Peacemaker in preparation to fire. “Waves, any non -Revenant Shadow Assassins you’re familiar with?”

 

Waverly shook her head, “No, none. Killer Miller was the only one, and it can’t be him. But there are a lot of entities out there that can control temperature or light- it’s kind of ‘creepy spirit 101’.”

 

“So it can be anything?” Wynonna sounded less than pleased with the vague answer. 

 

“Yep. Basically anything.” Waverly murmured, rubbing her arms to try to regain some feeling since they had started to go numb.

 

“They’re here. It must be them- they found me,” Eva shot to her feet in a panic and bolted for the front door. Dolls stopped the fleeing girl with a gentle but firm hand to each shoulder, “Whoa, whoa, slow down there. You’re good as dead if you run off now. Staying here is the safest. We’ll get rid of them, okay?”

 

“But it’s  _ me _ they want! I can keep outrunning them; I did for that long,” Eva cried, “You can’t die because of me. That  _ can’t  _ happen anymore!”

 

“You’re staying here, and that’s an order,” he kept his voice calm to try to calm the girl down. She didn’t seem to be put at ease any bit, but she relented. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”

 

Before Dolls could answer, the entire home seemed to shudder with the force of the frantic knocks that sounded like they came from every wall and window. When everyone was obviously startled, the source of the knocking laughed- a laugh which similarly came from all directions and no direction in particular. It sounded like a woman when it spoke, calmly and coldly.

 

“I see my home got infested with  _ rats _ while I was away. That’s a crying shame...”

 

“Fuck off, bitch!” Alice shouted at the ceiling. Again, she realized a bit too late, it probably  _ wasn’t _ the smartest idea to taunt an unknown supernatural entity. 

 

“Respect your elders! You stupid, useless little-“

 

Alice shrieked when she felt a painful burning run across her cheek. Her hands flew up to hold the stinging skin, and when she pulled them away she could see the streaks of bright red blood. 

 

The intruder’s voice sent shivers down Wynonna’s spine. She knew that voice. She’d known that voice since the day she was born. But there was no way it could be her. It couldn’t be. “Whoever you are, you better cut the voice act and keep your filthy claws  _ off  _ my daughter!” she yelled, cocking Peacemaker. This only seemed to give the unseen creature a brief pause before she laughed and continued. “A daughter? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; I heard all about how you could never keep your legs closed while I was down below. But don’t be ridiculous, Wynonna; you know  _ exactly _ who I am. I bet this will ring a bell.”

 

At that moment the lights went out, and the only sound was Sienna’s piercing scream. The next instant, the lights returned, but the girl was no longer at Nicole’s side; instead she was being held against the attacker, their forearm under her chin and a long clawed finger held at her cheek. For the first time, the rest of the room could get a good look at the intruder: 

 

And she was Willa. 

 

In the same clothes she was wearing the night of the winter solstice 18 years ago. The night she had died. She looked the same in almost every respect, except her nails had become sharpened claws that glowed with an eerie light, and her eyes were no longer brown like in life, but rather glazed over in an icy grayish blue. Sienna whimpered as Willa’s claw caressed her cheek, threatening to draw blood. Willa smiled as she met her sister’s eyes, “How did it go again? Give me Peacemaker, or I punch a bunch of holes in Waverly and Ginger’s spawn?” She squeezed Sienna’s cheeks and tightened her hold when the girl tried to wriggle away.

 

“You let her go or I shoot!” As soon as she’d had sights on Willa, Nicole had pulled her weapon and aimed it squarely at the woman’s head. Willa laughed when she saw Wynonna join her friend in aiming her own gun at her. “You can’t kill me twice, sister. I’m still getting payback for the first time.”

 

The lights went dark a second time, and this time the spirit tossed Sienna to the ground and rushed forward to collide with Wynonna. The middle Earp was knocked breathless to the ground, and she felt Peacemaker jostled loose from her grip by the force of the impact. “Don’t you touch that gun, Willa!” she gasped, trying to roll over and get to her feet, but finding her body paralyzed under a heavy weight. Her sister- what used to be her sister- crouched over her prone body. Her pupil-less eyes seemed to shine.

 

Across the room, Dolls’ mind rolled through maneuvers, distractions, anything at all that could neutralize the demonic Earp. Or at least keep her away from Peacemaker. In his peripheral vision, Dolls saw Alice staring intently at the cursed gun, at the foot of the living room wall where it had skidded to a halt. From the look on her face, he could tell what the girl was thinking.

 

“Don’t even think about it, Alice,” he hissed, careful not to take his eyes off Willa in case she made a move.

 

“Small and nimble, Dolls. I’ll show you what I can do,” she muttered back.

 

“It’s  _ my  _ gun, Wynonna. You stole it from me. Waverly too, but I can deal with her later. After all,  _ you’re  _ the one that killed me.” Willa eyed where Peacemaker was resting, and to her surprise caught Alice as she grabbed the revolver and ran down the hallway.

 

“Give me my gun, you little brat!” Willa spat as she leapt to her feet and chased Alice down the hall, hot on her heels.

 

“Willa, I swear to God if you lay a finger on her, I’ll send you somewhere  _ way  _ worse than Hell!” Wynonna cried, scrambling to her feet as she felt the sensation creeping back into her legs. She saw out of the corner of her eye- now that she had had time to adjust to the dark- that Nicole had picked up a collapsed Sienna, and Waverly was frantically checking over her daughter to make sure she hadn’t been injured. “Take her outside, you two. And take Eva too. Dolls and I will deal with Willa. But for God’s sake keep them safe.” She groaned as Dolls helped her to her feet, feeling the bruises forming on her back where she had hit the hardwood floor, “I’ve got an idiot daughter to go save.”

 

“Wynonna, Eva’s not here. She must have fled somewhere in the mayhem,” Waverly was already leading Nicole and Sienna out the front door. Wynonna sighed, “Alright, I’ll try to find her. But Alice is the priority.” Waverly nodded, “You make Willa regret ever showing her face here again.”

 

“Noted,” Wynonna flashed a small, exhausted smile and took off down the hall where she had seen Alice and Willa go, Dolls following close behind.

 

Alice ran haphazardly through the pitch black; she couldn’t see where she was heading, but she figured there had to be a back door somewhere to this house. The ancient revolver felt heavy in her hand. So this was Peacemaker, the gun every demon and their mom seemed to want to get their paws on. She reached the end of the hall and bolted into her bedroom. The window was closed but she knew the latches were loose. She knelt on her bed in front of the window and tucked Peacemaker between her thighs to keep it out of Willa’s reach.

 

_ Sister. Well, I guess I found out who Mystery Girl #3 in that photo was. _

 

Alice unlatched the window and heaved upwards. The old pane groaned but didn’t budge. “Oh, you son of a bitch, don’t get stuck on me now.”

 

“Ran into a dead end, I see. Give me Peacemaker, and I may leave you alone; after all, it’s your mother I want.” Willa walked into the doorway of the guest bedroom, her eyes seeming to glow, each step leaving creeping circles of ice on the floor. She snapped her fingers and a wall of ice sprung up across the empty doorway, blocking Wynonna and Dolls on the other side. Dolls fired a couple of rounds at the barrier, but the bullets simply embedded in the ice, barely cracking the surrounding surface.

 

“Yeah, no deal, homie. Betraying my family doesn’t sit too well with me,” she glanced back at the approaching figure, still pushing on the window, “and quite frankly, you’re looking pretty rough for it too.”

 

“That same mouth on you as your mother. Daddy would say a good beating would sort that shit right out.”

 

“Hmm, interesting. Glad I never knew him.” Alice yanked up on the window again, and this time it moved. She pushed it up the rest of the way, but Willa was already at the foot of the bed and reaching for her. She grabbed the gun from underneath her and spun around to face the demon. She held Peacemaker up in shaking hands, and cocked the barrel as she had seen her mother do before. “Come any closer and you’ll have bullet-for-brains.”

 

Willa seemed to greatly enjoy the sight before her, “Oh, how adorable. You stupid little girl, that gun only fires for the Heir, and Wynonna. It’s no better than a tin can in your hands. But thanks for handing it over, and I’ll take you as a snack to go- this nonsense has me  _ famished _ .”

 

Alice pulled down on the trigger and heard the gun click. She tried again, and again, but only the same result. She saw Willa’s muscles tense as she prepared to leap, and she looked over her shoulder to see her mother banging frantically at the ice, trying to break the wall down with her bare hands.

 

_ Sorry you’re about to see me die like a fool, Mama. _

 

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to prepare for what she figured would be being torn limb from limb, but another voice from outside interrupted the thought.

 

“Window girl, DUCK!”

 

Without thinking, Alice fell onto her side on the bed, and a split second later a steak knife came flying through the open bedroom window and embedded itself in Willa’s neck. She stopped cold, and the lights in the Homestead came back on bright. The ice in the doorway melted with her lapse in concentration, and Wynonna and Dolls burst through into the room. As soon as Wynonna had grabbed Peacemaker and turned to shoot her sister for the second time, Willa had vanished. The sky outside had already started to lighten back to its daylight brilliance. The only sign the demon had been there was a pool of dark, black blood.

 

Before she could process what had happened, Alice felt herself being pulled into a tight hug. At first she thought it must’ve been Waverly, but then it dawned on her that it was Wynonna. A bit shocked by the sudden affection, she didn’t return the hug at first, and before she could lift her arms to do so Wynonna had pulled away and was now scowling at her, “What the  _ fuck  _ do you think you were doing? Getting a very angry, very powerful demon to chase after you when you haven’t so much as gone skeet shooting in your life!”

 

Alice blinked, “Let me take self defense and shooting lessons with Dolls, and maybe I’ll be less stupid. But besides the point, who has those absolutely  _ badass  _ knife throwing skills?”

 

Dolls pointed out the window at the culprit. Alice turned and saw Eva standing in the grass, her hands balled into fists and shaking. She looked equally as stunned as Alice at what she had done. With her mouth gaping open, she turned back to Wynonna, “You understand we have to keep her now, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty proud of this chapter because fight scenes are HARD to write. They are my arch nemesis. Because it's easy to visualize a badass fight scene, but writing it is another matter entirely. Speedy- as- light update courtesy my research lab's network being down, so I could use that time to write instead. And the day being slow at my other job. Also kudos to Two Steps From Hell for giving me the perfect instrumental songs to write fight scenes to.
> 
> Next chapter: Eva, WTF?! Willa, where did you come from?! With everything that's happening, what should the team focus on? Oh and Alice & Dolls bonding is coming up.


	9. Two-Faced Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eva revives some memories, and Pater lays his cards on the table.

**July 22, 2034**

**Church Catacombs, Ghost River Triangle**

 

Willa grasped the hilt of the steak knife and pulled it from her throat. Blood barely dripped from the slit- shaped hole it left behind, and in a moment the wound had closed up, not even leaving a scar. Wormwood scampered over to smell the newcomer’s boots, but she abruptly shooed him away with a kick to the side.

 

“Stupid rat. Why is it so small?” She looked over at the older robed man who was sitting on a metal throne behind the marble crypt- turned- altar, “I thought Wormwood was supposed to be a ferocious beast of the Apocalypse. You know, doom on all mankind?” Willa wrinkled her nose at the decidedly less ferocious lizard below her, who was now gnawing on a long bone he had found somewhere.

 

“He can be; I’ve enchanted him so he’s more...manageable, until the Leonids hit, that is,” the man said calmly, appraising his visitor, “How was your family reunion, my dear?”

 

“I told you to cut the pet names; and judging by your smirk, you know exactly how it went. I almost had Wynonna’s daughter and Peacemaker, but this stupid girl threw a knife and I lost control.” Willa tossed the knife on the catacomb floor, where Wormwood immediately started lapping at the bloody blade.

 

The man’s smirk faltered, “Daughter? There’s  _ another  _ Earp? How did we not know?”

 

“Your soldiers have been too busy kissing your ass to notice what our enemies are up to, clearly. And you and I both know with each generation the Earps get stronger and smarter, which means this girl-”

 

“-Is an unaccounted for threat. Yes, I see, Willa. But similarly, her strength makes her useful. Opening the Gate to Hell for good takes a lot of power.  _ Unbelievable  _ power. It’s power she may be able to provide.” The man lazily twirled one of his silver clawed finger on the armrest of his throne, pondering the new information.

 

“I still don’t see why you’d go through all this trouble to bust out Bulshar. He’s an absolute fool- he only overthrew Satan because you backed him up,” Willa paused a moment and chuckled, “Lucifer’s second- in- command...Malphas. Traitor among Traitors.”

 

“It takes one to know one. And speaking of our  _ Lord  _ Bulshar, he wants me to give you this-” Malphas gently pulled a ring off of his non- clawed hand and held it out to Willa, “Jezebel’s Ring; one of a kind, a powerful source of magic. Beautiful intact, lethal once it’s broken. But only during the Leonids. It needs safe keeping, and he asked for it to go to you.”

 

Willa took the ring and inspected it closely. The jewel glinted in the dim kerosene lamplight as she tilted it back and forth. “I’ll accept it, as long as you tell that idiot it’s not a proposal. I will not be one of his harem.” Her lips curled in disgust as she slipped the ring on her finger.

 

“I think you better tell him that. I don’t get between Bulshar and his women,” the smirk returned to Malphas’ face. He started to chuckle at his own joke, but was abruptly shut up by a strong hand to his throat and his back thrown against the wall crypts.

 

“How many times do I have to tell you to show some  _ goddamn  _ respect! I am far more powerful than you can even  _ imagine _ , down here in your stuffy tomb.” Willa spat in Malphas’ face, and he took his free hand to wipe it away.

 

“Classy. But I’ll have you remember, I am far more powerful than you  _ or _ Bulshar, and I could skin you alive with a snap of my fingers. But I don’t, because we can help each other. I brought you to Earth so you can fulfill your little vengeance quest, and by doing so, you sufficiently distract the Earps and hopefully destroy their friends- which will make my job during the Leonids  _ so  _ much easier. And then when we summon Bulshar, we kill him together. But until then, it’d be very useful if  _ you  _ helped me keep him happy. He’s taken a shine to you, Willa, and I’m running a bit...behind schedule.” Malphas pushed Willa off of him and brushed off his robe.

 

“Your little demon lackeys haven’t been doing too good finding the items for the summoning spell, have they?” Willa sneered.

 

“The Watchers hid them very,  _ very  _ well, believe me- it’s not like I haven’t been slaving away for decades looking for these  _ trinkets _ .” Malphas suddenly hit the top of the altar in rage, his eyes turning deep crimson and voice becoming a growl, “But we finally have a lead on the Eye of Saint Ephram. I’m sure it is heavily guarded by something that wants nothing to do with me, however, creating our problem.”

 

“Boo- hoo. Figure it out. I have some Earps to deal with myself. And their little friends. First on the list is the bitch who stabbed me,” Willa turned to head out of the tomb when Malphas’ voice stopped her. “This other girl who threw the knife- what did she look like?”

 

Willa’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the question, “I don’t know, big dark hair, young, like a teenager, maybe Mexican or something.”

 

To Willa’s surprise, Malphas roared at this description, “The  _ traitor _ ! That bitch is with the  _ Earps _ ! Ohhh, clever girl. Clever girl. But stupid in the end. She won’t last the month with them.”

 

“Are you going to send out your ‘army’?” Willa asked with air quotes.

 

“Oh no, that would be a waste of my time and resources. No, with Eva, the Earps will take care of her for me. She will be neutralized long before the Leonids arrive. How fortuitous for me,” Malphas smiled and stood back over his altar, back facing Willa.

 

“Well if you’re about to call Bulshar, I’m out.” And with that, Willa disappeared.

 

“Bulshar can wait. While he’s busy rolling about with his harem down below,  _ I  _ have work to do. And oh, so little time to do it.” Malphas muttered to himself, reaching for some herbs to spellcast.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 22, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Eva winced as the needle made contact with her skin. “Sorry…” Jeremy muttered, quickly stepping away, “Are you sure you’re still okay with this? It’s fine if you don’t want to.”

 

“No, I want it. Do whatever you need to do. Something is  _ wrong  _ with me and I need answers.” Eva shook her arm to emphasize the point.

 

“Well, Dolls did say there’s a pretty good chance the memory loss is psychological, and it’ll come back in its own time.” Jeremy tried to reassure her, but Eva shook her head.

 

“I’m not talking about the memory loss. I feel  _ wrong _ . Like I don’t fit right in my body, or something. Something else is wrong with me and I bet you can find out what.”

 

Jeremy nodded somberly, “I’ll certainly try my best, but I’m not a doctor; honestly, not even a nurse, here. So I don’t know really how much I can do. But, it’s whatever you want. So, try to hold still and I’ll take some blood samples. I’ll aim for minimal bruising.”

 

Jeremy quickly stuck the butterfly needle in Eva’s arm and attached the blood collection vial. Eva leaned back in the office chair and sighed. “I know it’s something...supernatural...that must be wrong. That’s why I know you can figure it out. I don’t know who the hell you people are, but clearly demons aren’t a strange concept to you.”

 

“Or you, with those knife throwing skills!” Alice chimed in from where she was sitting on the conference table. She felt a blush creeping across her cheeks for speaking a little too quickly, “They’re kinda new for me, I’m just sort of  _ winging it _ \- you know?” Alice awkwardly chuckled as Eva just furrowed her brows in confusion. “What are you-”

 

“She’s currently a walking disaster, is what she is. Until she gets some proper weapons training from Dolls,” Waverly shot Alice a knowing look, “And yeah, you can say we’re a bit  _ too  _ familiar with this particular demon.”

 

“Oh, have you fought her before?” Eva asked, her eyes widening a bit with curiosity.

 

“Not as a demon, per se-”

 

“She’s our sister. Our completely ridiculous, lost, wayward,  _ idiotic  _ sister.” Wynonna cut off Waverly with the statement, and she held her head in her hands with an exasperated groan. “I can’t believe she’s back.  _ Again _ .” She muttered.

 

“Hey,” Waverly rubbed her sister’s arm gently, “You know it’s not your fault, right?”

 

“Except it is,” Wynonna answered shortly, “I shot her. I killed her. I sent her to Hell. And Hell clearly worked wonders for her; she’s now a fully fledged demon and she’s back to kill me and everyone who knows me. This is  _ perfect _ .” She kicked herself off of the wall and turned out the office door. She stuck her head back in one last time to announce, “I’m going to Shorty’s for a drink. Don’t wait up.”

 

“Wynonna, Shorty’s is closed,” Nicole called after her.

 

“I’m aware; I have Doc’s key, so it’s free whiskey off the tap!”

 

Nicole sighed. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she held her tongue. Waverly gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, but you know Wynonna. Let her drink it out, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

 

Nicole rolled her eyes. “At this rate, her liver is going to disintegrate.”

 

“I’m sorry about your sister,” Eva spoke up. She had watched the exchange unfolding with calm eyes, as if she wasn’t surprised by Willa’s story. Jeremy had since bandaged up her arm and removed the needle. He’d obtained a few vials of blood for testing, and currently had them placed in a test tube perch on his work table. The same work table that currently had the ceremonial knife wrapped in linen atop it. When he set the tubes of blood down next to the knife, the scientist didn’t notice the smoke that started to rise from the covered blade.

 

“So I’ll run a few standard tests first- just to get baseline levels for metabolites and all that good stuff. Then I’ll do some tests for potential supernatural elements; before they dissolved, Black Badge managed to come up with a few good preliminary ones that will at least give us a starting point-”

 

“Your table is smoking,” Eva interrupted Jeremy and pointed behind him, where the linen covering the knife had started to smolder. “Shiittt!” Jeremy took off his shoe and banged it on top of the budding fire in order to snuff out the embers. Nicole looked less than impressed, her arms crossed in disapproval, “Two days, Jeremy. You’ve nearly destroyed the municipal building two days in a row, now.”

 

“Okay, in my defense, I did not know the knife could  _ actually _ get hot. And it’s been quiet all night, I swear;  _ no _ knife funny business happened while you guys were gone.”

 

“It reacted to Eva’s blood…” Waverly murmured and walked over to the table where the knife now lay exposed. She popped the cap off one of the vials of blood and carefully poured a couple of drops onto the blade. Instead of boiling away like the human samples had, the blood seemed to sink into the metal. In response, the blade glowed a dim, fiery orange before returning to normal a few moments later. Waverly turned around to face Jeremy, “Supernatural test number one is positive for non-human elements, I’m thinking.”

 

Eva didn’t seem to hear Waverly; she was staring intently at the knife, her jaw clenched tight and her expression stoic.

 

“Eva? Are you remembering something?” Nicole asked gently.

 

The girl nodded, swallowing hard. “Ye-yeah. Yeah. I know that knife. It’s something...very,  _ very  _ bad. Where did you get it?”

 

“A friend of ours died retrieving it,” Nicole responded somberly, nodding her head.

 

Eva got a distant look in her eyes for a moment, before she shook her head and seemed to return to the present day. “It’s from the...cult I came from. I’m sure of it. It belongs to a man...but I don’t think he’s really a man. It’s  _ his  _ and he’s looking for other things, too. He needs them for something. And I think his time is running out.”

 

“Desperate creatures will do desperate things,” Waverly commented, nodding for Eva to continue.

 

“He goes by Pater. He’s old, and he has these silver talons on his hand made with jewels…” Eva seemed to be reaching the limits of her memory.

 

“That’s Latin for ‘father’!” Sienna interjected from where she stood next to Nicole, holding her mom’s hand tightly.

 

“Waverly, silver talons….do you think it could be the same thing as the Widows?” Nicole sincerely hoped it wasn’t, but she had a feeling those talons may be a signature of Bulshar’s workers.

 

Waverly snapped her fingers, “I’ve got an idea.” She hurried over to some drawers and quickly rifled through the folders. When she found the file on the Widows, she pulled out a photograph they had taken of Widow Mercedes when they captured her for her venom. She held the photo out to Eva and pointed at the talons, “Do Pater’s look like these?”

 

“Exactly…” Eva whispered. She started to tremble and her breathing became quick and ragged, “Please get it away from me, please take it away!”

 

“Okay, okay,” Waverly quickly tossed the photo aside and rubbed Eva’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s okay, he's not here. He can’t hurt you.”

 

“Yes he can,” Eva got out of the chair and held her arms close to her. “I, uh, I want to go lie down. If that’s alright.”

 

“Of course. You can use my bed, it’s in that side office over there,” Jeremy held his hand out to lead Eva.

 

“Poor thing,” Waverly whispered. “She’s clearly been through hell thanks to this Pater guy.”

 

“Well, if he’s what we’re up against, I think I better be heading to the range to meet Dolls. I need to get that weapons training in before my mom changes her mind.” Alice hopped off the table and strided out the door, waving at her aunts as she left.

 

Sienna took a deep breath and let go of Nicole’s hand as she started to follow Alice.

 

“Whoa, whoa, where are you going?” Nicole grabbed her arm and gently turned her around so they were facing each other. “You got your weapons training already, and Mama is already mad at me about that.”

 

“But Mom, that’s with one measly pistol. It’s not  _ combat  _ training. And without it, I’m just a big ole target for every demon in Purgatory! Willa went right for me-”

 

“Which is exactly why you are nowhere near the frontlines. You do research with Jeremy and that is more than helpful,” Waverly interrupted sternly, crossing her arms.

 

“But I can be  _ more  _ helpful! If you just let me try-”

 

“Sienna, you are  _ 10 _ years old-”

 

“10 and three quarters!” Sienna yelled, “I know  _ way  _ more about demons than Alice and  _ she  _ gets training!”

 

“Alice is 18 and  _ her  _ mom said okay. You’re barely more than half that and your moms both say no, right Mom?” Waverly looked up at Nicole for her support.

 

“Yes, both moms agree, Sienna. Even just training would be dangerous for you. You already help us so much from the office.” Nicole spoke softly, trying to comfort her daughter.

 

Sienna felt her cheeks growing red and the tears starting to prick in her eyes. But she wouldn’t cry, because she was too old. And she didn't want them to keep treating her like a  _ baby  _ anymore. Instead, she marched over to the bookshelf and pulled some large volumes out into a pile on the floor. She fell to the linoleum floor with a huff, grabbed the top book, and poured herself into her research. Since it, apparently, was all she could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Alice and Dolls bonding/weapons training, and some other stuff
> 
> Y'all let me know what you think so far!
> 
> And here's Crystal Reed, the actress model for Alice: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/27/ee/2b/27ee2b1ffb267a48d9373fa1b95f6b49.jpg


	10. Tears and Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice learns more about her legacy, Sienna and Wynonna find listening ears, and something is wrong with Eva.

**July 22, 2034**

**Purgatory Police Department Shooting Range**

 

A spray of bullets patterned the humanoid shooting target, followed by an excited whoop from the shooter. Alice pumped her fist into the air, knocking her protective earmuffs askew.

 

“I hit it, Dolls!”

 

Dolls readjusted her earmuffs and inspected the target. “Well, you did hit the  _ paper.  _ As far as hitting the  _ target _ , we’ve got some work to do. How about we try a simpler gun; you went right for some experimental military tech. Nanobots in the bullets- hence the spray.”

 

Alice handed the rifle back to him. “Experimental? My mom let you give me untested weaponry?”, she held her hand to her chest in mock offense.

 

Dolls smiled and lifted his index finger to his lips, “Not exactly. But I figured you’d have fun with it.”

 

Alice grinned widely, “Well, you figured hella right! Hey, you got a flamethrower over there?” She pushed past him to look through the collection of guns Dolls had brought from the armory. He chuckled and shook his head. “With your mother around? No way. Purgatory would have been torched to ashes a decade ago.”

 

“Okay, fair point. Oh! Dynamite? Grenades?  _ Rocket launcher _ ?” Alice only seemed to get more excited as she thought of more weapons she’d like to test out.

 

“Okay, hold on there, partner. There is a...sort of grenade launcher, but why don’t you try this first?” Dolls un-holstered the antique revolver he kept at his side, opened the barrel, and loaded a few bullets before locking it back in place. He held it out to Alice, who took it hesitantly.

 

“This old thing? Can it even shoot straight?” She inspected the long barrel and held it loosely in her right hand. She turned it upside down, and the sunlight caught on three initials inscribed on the butt of the gun.

 

_ J.H.H. _

 

“Who’s J.H.H.? And why do you have his old ass gun?”

 

“J.H.H. stands for John Henry Holliday, a.k.a Doc Holliday. After he was killed, I kept it. To honor him, you know. But I think if anyone should have it, it’s you.”

 

Alice took a moment to process this, and her eyes grew wide when the realization hit her. “Wait, are you telling me my father is  _ the  _ Doc Holliday? Like- Wyatt Earp’s best friend, Doc Holliday?”

 

Now it was Dolls’ turn to be confused. “Yes...didn’t Sheriff Haught tell you?”

 

Alice rolled her eyes, “Well,  _ yeah _ , but I just figured he gave himself the same nickname due to the last name coincidence. What, was I supposed to immediately assume you meant the centuries old gunslinger? How was he even-you know what, never mind, bet it’s a long story. Let’s put a raincheck on that one.” 

 

“Long story short, he was cursed by a witch and became ageless. Hence the being alive until a week ago thing. Now, let’s see what Holliday’s daughter can do with the  _ right  _ gun.” Dolls watched as Alice took the standard firing stance he had shown her, trying to hold the revolver with two hands and finding it awkward. The agent shook his head and corrected her, “This isn’t a military issue weapon, Alice. You can’t treat it like the other guns. Trust your instincts.”

 

“But Aunt Gus never took me shooting; she never let me anywhere near guns!”

 

“You still have instincts, Alice, just breathe. You’re the daughter of the two best gunslingers the Earth has ever seen.”

 

Alice took a shaky breath and faced back at the target. She looked down at the revolver and repositioned it in her right hand, and that hand only. She straightened her back and held out her arm, a slight bend at the elbow. With her thumb, she cocked the weapon and curled her index finger around the trigger. Since she’d fired the other, more burly weapons, the kickback when she fired the small revolver barely fazed her. What did shock her was when she saw where she had hit: smack in the middle of the target’s chest, right where its heart would be. Behind her, Dolls beamed with pride, “What’d I tell you?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 22, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Sienna glanced up from her book and surreptitiously surveyed the Black Badge Office. Her mother and Jeremy were both absorbed in their work- Jeremy filtering some of Eva’s blood through a complicated looking series of plastic tubes and chemical agents, and Waverly searching through some old volumes of her own; from this distance, they appeared to be written in Old High German, but it was difficult to say. Quietly, Sienna closed her book and gently placed it on the floor, careful not to make a sound. She slowly pried off her sneakers and set them next to the books, then got up to her feet. With her pink socks muffling her footsteps, she tiptoed to the back of Black Badge’s headquarters, checking behind her periodically to see if her mom or Jeremy had noticed. They hadn’t. Sienna darted behind some tall filing cabinets full of supernatural case files and carefully opened the door to Jeremy’s office/bedroom. For as long as she had known him, he had lived in the Black Badge Office; sometimes the others would ask him why, and he just said it’s where he feels happiest- and that it’d be strange to call anywhere else his home. So that’s how an old, secluded office had been converted into a bedroom, with a full-size bed, dresser, bookshelf, and nightstand. It was on this bed that Eva was currently lying, her face buried in the pillow and arms straight at her side. She groaned when she heard the door open. 

 

“Five more minutes, please,” came the muffled plea. 

 

“Sorry-,” Sienna winced as the door closed a bit louder than she had her aiming for. “You can keep sleeping if you want. But I wanted to ask you something.”

 

Eva lifted her head and batted at her face, trying to brush her unruly curls out of the way. “Mm-okay? What’s your question?” The older girl sat up in the bed and leaned her back against the wall. Despite sleeping all last night and well into the morning, she still looked dead on her feet. 

 

“You’re really good with knives. Like, really  _ really _ good. You took out Willa like it was-  _ whoosh _ \- nothing!” Sienna threw an imaginary knife and added sound effects to emphasize her point. “No one believes I need to learn combat skills but I  _ know _ I do. I could help a lot! Could you teach me how you throw knives?”

 

Eva blinked at the little girl’s request. She took a moment to absorb what she was being asked before responding, “Umm, you are very, very young. And I take it you came to me because your moms said no?”

 

Sienna wrung her hands and looked down at the floor briefly. “Uh maybe? But look, they’re  _ way _ overprotective and they don’t see why I need to learn. They still think I’m a baby and that I need protecting. But I wouldn’t if I could  _ fight _ .”

 

Eva gave her a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry, I like your enthusiasm and all, but your moms and the others are giving me safe harbor. It’s not my place to go against their wishes- especially where their child is concerned.”

 

“You escaped from the Cult of Bulshar, right?” Sienna asked suddenly. 

 

“Yes- so I’ve been told that’s what it’s called...” Eva wasn’t sure where this line of questioning was going, but she figured Sienna hadn’t yet dropped the combat subject.  

 

“Okay, so in a cult you’re always told what to do, right? You’re out now, so you can listen to whoever you want to. You don’t _ have _ to do exactly what my moms say.”

 

Eva chuckled. Of course Sienna wouldn’t let it go. “I may not remember much right now, but I have a feeling being rebellious is what got me here- cut up and sore and bruised.”

 

Sienna bit her lip and looked back down at her hands, not meeting Eva’s eyes. Eva sat up a little further, noticing something glimmering in the young girl’s normally bright eyes- something dark, and scared. 

 

“She could’ve killed me, you know...she really wanted to, I could tell. And I know- I  _ know _ she’s gonna come back, and she’s gonna go after me cause I’m small and weak and she hates my moms so much-“ Sienna couldn’t hold back her tears anymore, and she felt them running down her cheeks as her words broke into sobs. The next second, she felt herself enveloped in a tight embrace from Eva, who had jumped from the bed and was now standing in front of her.

 

“Shhh, it’s okay, Salvador. It’s okay; you’re safe with me. I promise” Eva whispered comfortingly into Sienna’s shoulder. Sienna furrowed her brows in confusion and stepped back to look at Eva. “I’m Sienna. Who’s Salvador?”

 

Eva seemed equally confused by Sienna’s question. “Well...I- I obviously meant Sienna. Sienna. I’ll teach you the basics. Of knife throwing, that is. I can’t say I’ll be the best teacher- I’m not even sure when and how I learned it. But you _ absolutely _ cannot tell anyone.”

 

Sienna looked for a moment like she wanted to pursue the Salvador matter further, but she decided against it. “Okay, I pinky promise.” She held out her raised pinky finger, which Eva just stared at. Sienna rolled her eyes and took Eva’s hand with her free hand, picking out her pinky finger and bringing it to hook with her own. “It means I really,  _ really _ promise.”

 

“Ohhh, I learned ‘cross my heart’,” Eva smiled and made the gesture across her chest. Sienna nodded, “That works, too. Now, there’s some steak knives in the break room. We can just tell my mom and Jeremy you feel hungry and we’re gonna go make some sandwiches.” Sienna grabbed Eva’s hand and started her out of Jeremy’s room without giving her a chance to respond. With her left arm yanked by the young girl, Eva cried out in pain and instinctively grabbed her shoulder with her right hand. Sienna yelped and let go of her hand, “I’m so sorry, Eva! I didn’t know your shoulder was hurt. Should Jeremy take a look at it?”

 

Eva grimaced and shook her head. “No, no, it’s alright. It’s just a scrape and I think the bone is bruised. Time will heal it- I must’ve gotten it when I was on the run.” Sienna decided to accept this answer and took the girl’s right hand instead before taking her out of the office. When the two adults heard the door click shut behind them, they turned around to see Sienna determinedly leading Eva out of the office with a growing grin on her face. 

 

“Eva’s feeling hungry, so I’m showing her where the break room is. We’re gonna make sandwiches!” Eva nodded in confirmation as she felt Sienna tugging on her arm. Jeremy smiled, “That sounds like a great idea! Help Eva feel at home; I should be done with the preliminary testing soon and will have some results in the next half hour- then we can see what I find.” 

 

Waverly eyed her daughter closely, “Just going to the break room for sandwiches?”

 

Sienna nodded, not letting her easygoing smile falter. 

 

After a moment of thought, Waverly smiled back. “Okay, but don’t drag on too long. I have some old texts talking about Hell’s demonic hierarchies that I need a keen Latin eye for.” Waverly winked at the young girl, who couldn’t help but smile wider at the thought of putting her skills to use. But even demonic hierarchies couldn’t make her forget her combat training. “Okay, Mama, see you later!” And in a second the two girls had disappeared out the door. 

 

Sienna practically jogged down the municipal building hallway to the break room, not waiting for Eva to catch up. She ran into the break room and headed straight for the cutlery drawer, pulling out a couple of the newer, and therefore sharper, steak knives to practice with. She turned back around to address Eva, but instead saw the older girl clinging to the doorframe, clutching her head until her knuckles blanched white and her face screwed up in an agonized grimace. Sienna felt her heart drop from her chest to her stomach. “Eva..?”

 

Eva groaned and cried out as a sharp wave of pain seemed to hit her. “My _...head _ , oh god...my  _ head _ !” She was gasping now for breath, beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. Sienna dropped the knives and ran over to Eva as her knees buckled and she collapsed the floor. She had started shaking and twitching in a manner Sienna thought resembled a seizure. The older girl’s breathing had grown even more ragged, and in the odd lighting of the station kitchenette, it almost seemed like her muscles were swimming under her skin with each convulsion. “Eva! Eva, what’s wrong?” She tried to grab Eva’s arm, but the older girl swatted her away. “G-get. HELP.” Eva forced the words out before crying out again. 

 

Sienna sprinted back towards the Black Badge Office and hurled herself through the door, “Mama! Jeremy! Eva is really  _ really _ sick; she needs  _ help _ !” She sprinted back towards the break room, knowing that Jeremy and Waverly would be following close behind. 

 

“Eva! Eva, hold on! I’ve got Jeremy, he can help you! He has medicine!” Sienna yelled, peeking her head through the break room door. But she realized her words were addressed to no one but a pile of torn and bloody clothes. Jeremy and Waverly stopped behind her, panting and trying to remain calm. “Sienna, where is Eva?” Waverly asked. 

 

Sienna looked around the room frantically, “She was right here! She could barely move! She was having a- a seizure or som-!”

 

“Guys..” Jeremy interrupted Sienna to point at the break room window. It was open, and the blinds were flapping softly in the breeze. A streak of blood was on the windowsill.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**July 22, 2034**

**Shorty’s Saloon, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Another whiskey could never hurt. At least, that had been Wynonna’s go- to philosophy for the past 45 years.  _ Shit; I was  _ not  _ supposed to get this old.  _ And if she was going to get this old, she sure as hell wasn’t supposed to still be hunting demons. She wasn’t still supposed to have the Earp Curse hanging over her head, breathing down her neck so hard she could never relax- never  _ breathe _ . And now Willa was back. Poor, misguided, angry,  _ stupid  _ Willa was back from Hell.

 

_ Where I sent her. She’s a million times worse and it’s all my fault. _

 

Willa was a fully- fledged demon now. There was no saving her anymore. Maybe there wasn’t a way to save her before, either; that’s what Dolls had told her, at least. And Waverly. But they didn’t  _ know  _ Willa- not like she did. They never saw the terrified little girl who took the brunt of Daddy’s beatings because she was the  _ Heir  _ and it was her  _ job  _ to be tough and unfeeling. Willa wasn’t born a demon; she had been made one.

 

_ And I helped make her. _

 

“Room for company?” The familiar voice sat next to her, grabbed her own shot glass, and poured some of the whiskey bottle into it.

 

“It’s not trespassing, Sheriff; I have the key,” Wynonna smiled dryly, jangling the keys briefly in the air between the two of them.

 

“I’m not here to arrest  _ or  _ forcibly remove you, Wynonna. No matter how much I may want to, sometimes. I’m here because I know you, and I know now is not the time for you to be alone.” Nicole said the last part quietly, briefly putting a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder.

 

For some minutes, there was just a comfortable silence between them, with Wynonna continuing to drink, and Nicole sticking to brief sips since she had learned her lesson long ago that it was humanly impossible to keep up with an Earp in a bar. After what could have been an eternity, Wynonna broke the silence.

 

“It’s like ‘The Greatest Hits’ of all my failures are coming back to haunt me: first Doc is killed-and to this day, I swear I keep seeing his stupid, ye-olde get up out of the corner of my eye all the  _ damn _ time- and then Alice comes back out of nowhere looking for me, and now Willa is back from  _ Hell  _ as a demon determined to kill us all. Like, is Bulshar really that sick? Is he taunting me?” She felt a tear roll down her cheek, but was either too drunk or too upset to care.

 

Nicole let out a deep sigh. There it was. What she and everyone else had known Wynonna was trying to suffocate deep inside herself. She’d been doing it since their original plan had failed to break the curse, and they had found themselves back at square one instead of celebrating an early retirement.

 

“Bulshar may be a sick son of a bitch, Wynonna. But you and I both know that one thing was definitely not his doing; Alice came back because she’s your daughter. Don’t you shake your head at me, she is.  _ That’s  _ why she came back. It was always going to happen, and I know a part of you knew that. And I may have only known her for a grand total of 24 hours, but she is definitely  _ not _ a failure-”

 

“Oh god, no. She’s...she’s Alice. No,  _ I’m  _ the failure, Nicole.  _ Me _ . She’s going to be the next Heir and will have to go through all this Revenant- killing bullshit again. I was stupid and careless 18 years ago and now she has to pay the price. Because I  _ failed  _ to fix this mess.” Wynonna sobbed and let her head drop to the bar top. A minute passed without Nicole saying a word.

 

“Well, say something uplifting, walking bumper sticker. You’ve got a reputation to uphold with me.” She did her best to sound snarky, but speaking into the old wood of the bar greatly reduced the effect.

 

“Umm...Wiley Coyote’s back at 4 o’clock?” Nicole answered apprehensively.

 

Wynonna lifted her head in confusion to look at Nicole. But when she saw the Sheriff had her gun drawn and pointed at the door to Shorty’s she quickly turned around to see what she was looking at: the hellhound from the previous day at Carla’s Flower Shop, bullet graze scarred over on its shoulder, shredded bandages stuck in its claws, and amber eyes trained on the two women.

 

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really proud of this chapter! The plot is really starting to heat up which means writing is much harder, since I have to keep like 7 storylines straight and going at a decent pace. But I think it's working. Let me know what you think; you inspire me, especially when my schedule is as packed and hectic as it has been.


	11. Wolf on the Lam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eva's secret is uncovered, and her whereabouts leave the team stumped.

**July 22, 2034**

**Shorty’s Saloon, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

Wynonna pulled Peacemaker from her boot and aimed it at the creature. The barrel of the gun began to glow a fiery orange; its approval to take the shot. 

 

“Aw, no more flowers? That’s too bad; they really brought out your eyes.” She cocked the gun and placed her finger on the trigger. At the sound of the gun clicking into place, the wolf snarled and dashed to its left, narrowly avoiding the first bullet from Peacemaker. 

 

“Dammit! Nicole, feel free to shoot!” 

 

“Will do,” Nicole aimed at the wolf as it ran towards the basement door on the other side of the bar. She took a shot, and it hit its mark with a yelp from the creature. It stumbled when the bullet pierced it’s thigh, but quickly continued to the cellar door. By this time, Wynonna had re-aimed Peacemaker and had found her target- the back of the wolf’s head- once again. The gun resumed glowing once it found its mark, and she pulled the trigger. Instead of the crack and smell of old gunpowder that she was anticipating, Wynonna only heard the gun click uselessly.

 

“What the  _ fuck _ you stupid gun...” She hit the gun with her other hand a few times, as if it may have gotten stuck. When she held it up for a third attempt, the wolf stopped short of the basement door and turned around to face her; its eyes were unreadable, but in that moment, the beady little things seemed almost pleading- certainly not as angry as they had been earlier. 

 

Peacemaker started to glow again, but quickly it started to stutter and flicker like a car with a dying battery. Wynonna faltered when she felt the gun start to tremble in her hand, and despite her best efforts to keep it pointing forward, the barrel started to turn off to the side, away from the wolf, as if an invisible force was pushing it away. 

 

The wolf seemed equally as surprised as Wynonna at the turn of events, but wasted no more time taking advantage of the opportunity to escape. It balled one hand into a fist and punched out a window adjacent to the padlocked cellar door. As quickly as it had appeared, the wolf had crawled through the shattered window, leaving nothing but bloody footprints and tufts of fur stuck to shards. As soon as the creature was gone, Peacemaker stopped shaking. 

 

“Wynonna, what the  _ hell _ just happened?” Nicole was staring apprehensively at Peacemaker, who had since reverted to a normal, antique revolver. 

 

Wynonna’s mouth moved as she tried to form words to explain what had just happened. Instead, she ended up groaning and gestured feebly at the busted window. “Come on dude, you have  _ hands _ . It was unlatched.”

 

“Wynonna, it’s a demon. Are the lack of manners really surprising you?”

 

“No, I guess not. But still. Damn. I can’t afford to fix that.”

 

The two women spun around when they heard the front door to Shorty’s bang open. Both raised their weapons reflexively, but lowered them as soon as they saw just who came running through the doorway. 

 

“Sienna! Get back outside,  _ now _ !” Nicole ordered when she saw her daughter running frantically towards her. 

 

“Mom, I swear to god, you better not have shot Eva!” Sienna was panting when she finally stopped by the bar. 

 

“Did you run the whole way here? Wait- why would I shoot Eva?” Nicole looked at Wynonna for some clarification, but the elder Earp just shrugged her shoulders.

 

They heard the front door open again, and this time Waverly and Jeremy came running in. Waverly was holding some kind of long metal tube and Jeremy was carrying a medical bag stuffed to the brim with supplies. 

 

“Wow, Sienna, you are really fast. Ugh. Or I’m _ really _ out of shape.” Jeremy dropped the bag on one of the bar tables with a thunk and held onto his side, gasping. “Agh! I think I have a stitch.”

 

“What’s going on? Why did you guys run all the way here? Is the Jeep not working?” Nicole was puzzled, and the creature that had fled the saloon was momentarily forgotten. 

 

“The Jeep is perfectly fine; Sienna just bolted once we figured it out and at that point it was drive and let her run alone, or follow her. So obviously...here we are.” Waverly was noticeably less winded than her counterpart, but still struggling to catch her breath after the sprint to Shorty’s. 

 

“What’s with all the gear? It looks like that time in ‘21 when the raccoon nest was discovered in the vents at the station. Oh my god, do you remember the mama raccoon that attacked Doc’s face cause she thought his mustache was one of her babies? That shit was  _ hilarious _ -“ 

 

“Wynonna, focus. Jeremy figured out what is wrong with Eva, and we may not have much time to find her again.”

 

“Wait- you _ lost _ our cult refugee? How?” Wynonna interrupted Waverly with a stunned look. 

 

“Well, said refugee jumping out of a window tends to do the trick,” Waverly replied pointedly. Before Wynonna could respond, she continued, “Eva’s a shapeshifter. Her and Sienna were going to the break room for lunch when Eva collapsed. Sienna ran to get us, and by the time we got there, she had turned and fled.”

 

“Wait, so how did that tell you she’s a shapeshifter? Maybe she just freaked. She  _ was _ in the Cult of Bulshar for god knows how long.”

 

“Her blood told us,” Jeremy interjected, finally having found his breath. “I was doing a routine examination under a microscope, looking for abnormal structures, signs of infection, etcetera...and under the high power scope, you can see the strands of DNA. Barely- they just look like fishing line- but you can see them. And hers were jumping.”

 

“Jumping? So she’s a shapeshifter because her DNA does the Cha Cha Slide?”

 

“Yep, basically,” Jeremy nodded at Wynonna’s analogy. “Her DNA was jumping because it’s unstable- the ‘jumping’ was the strands reconfiguring themselves rapidly, instead of sticking to the same double helix formation it normally would.”

 

“So when her DNA ‘jumps’ enough, she transforms,” Waverly added. 

 

“Okay...so we’re harboring a shapeshifter. But what exactly does she shapeshift  _ into _ ?” Nicole had grown increasingly concerned as Jeremy and Waverly explained what had happened. She was pretty sure she already knew the answer. 

 

“I can’t say for sure based on the blood samples alone, but it’ll be some type of animal-“

 

“Like a wolf.” Wynonna finished for Jeremy. She turned to look at Nicole, who was holding her face in her hands. 

 

“Oh my god, I shot Eva.” She murmured in horror. 

 

“Mom! What did I just say?” Sienna threw her arms in the air. “You could’ve killed her! Where is she now?”

 

“On the lam,” Wynonna pointed at the broken window. “She’s paying for my window when she’s better, by the way.”

 

“Well, she can’t have gone too far- especially being shot. Where did you hit her, Nicole?” Waverly turned to the Sheriff, who still looked mortified.

 

“Um...her thigh, I think. It didn’t seem to faze her much, honestly. I’m thinking she’s much sturdier when in wolf form.”

 

“She has to be- I know I shot her in Carla’s Flower Shop. Nicked her right in the shoulder,” Wynonna added, pointing to the approximate spot on her own left shoulder. Sienna silently mouth an “oh” of realization to herself. That’s why Eva’s shoulder had hurt.

 

“Well, you  _ doofuses  _ shot my new friend twice now! We have to find her, and heal her, and you guys  _ have  _ to apologize!” Sienna was exasperated with these trigger-happy adults.

 

“The good thing is that a large, renegade werewolf should be pretty conspicuous, even in Purgatory,” Waverly was slowly twirling the metal stick she had brought with her over her shoulder and back.

 

“What’s that about…?” Wynonna pointed apprehensively at the thin object her sister was wielding.

 

“Oh, this?” Waverly stopped twirling the stick like a large baton and held it up for her sister to see better, “Dart-shooter. Jeremy has some tranquilizer darts stocked in that duffel bag, stocked to approximately bear-dosage because, well, we’re assuming a werewolf will need a bit more.” Wynonna nodded with the explanation; made sense to her.

 

“That’s gonna scare her so bad, Mama. Maybe if she can see us, and she’ll recognize us, that’ll work! It’s, it’s like that legend from the Ukraine I think? If you throw a werewolf’s human clothes at it it will turn back?” Sienna was apprehensive in her own way about the adults’ plan.

 

“I mean, that’s certainly the less stressful way for Eva,” Jeremy conceded, “But we don’t know at this point what is legitimate and what is Old Wives’ Tale. And Eva is in grave danger running amok out there- the Cult of Bulshar is hunting her, Willa is probably none too happy with getting stabbed, and the citizens of Purgatory have a current war against the grey wolf population for livestock stealing.”

 

“I don’t like it, Uncle Jeremy. Can I come with and see if she recognizes me? If that doesn’t work, then you can do your plan.”

 

“Absolutely not!” Waverly interjected, “We just talked about this, Sienna. You are  _ not  _ allowed on the front lines. Eva may be on our side as a human, but we have no idea what she may do transformed.”

 

“She knows me, Mama! She’s out there hurt and scared and I  _ know  _ I can help!” Sienna couldn’t stop her voice from rising. She was so tired of this- of her Mama treating her like a baby. A fragile, delicate baby that needed to be sheltered and hidden away and kept in the dark about everything because everything was “too dangerous”.

 

Waverly opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it, taking a deep breath to steady herself. She turned her gaze to Nicole.

 

“Nicole, can you take Sienna back home, please? We need to get Eva back ASAP, because with every passing second she’s just getting further and further away,” her tone was low and measured as she addressed her partner.

 

Nicole only nodded solemnly; she knew this ongoing fight between Sienna and Waverly had to be resolved sometime soon- but that time was not now.

 

Sienna looked up at her other mother with pleading eyes. She could feel them starting to wet with tears as she tried one last time to get someone, just  _ someone _ , to listen to her.

 

But as soon as Nicole saw those tears, Sienna saw her mom’s mouth curl into a small grimace of pity. The young girl knew she’d lost this one.

 

“Sienna, I know you want to go out and see things, but someone needs to help get the Homestead ready for Eva’s return. I’m not going on the frontlines either- sometimes we’re needed elsewhere.” Nicole hated to see her daughter upset- but she hated the memory of Willa’s claws clutching that small, delicate neck even more.

 

Sienna let out an aggravated growl and stormed off to the room above the bar. Her exit was quickly followed by the sound of the above-stairs apartment door slamming shut.

 

After a few long beats, the stifling silence was broken by Wynonna, “Wow, sis, I’m getting flashbacks to you in middle school.” Her chuckle was met only with pointed looks.

 

“We’ve lost too much time already- better hope there’s enough of a trail to follow and that we still have time.” Waverly grabbed the dart gun with one hand and roughly lifted the duffel bag from the table with the other, practically throwing it into Jeremy’s arms.

 

“Such a freakin’  _ fantastic  _ day...” she muttered under her breath as she headed out the front door of Shorty’s.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Jesus Christ, how much blood can she lose and still be going?”

 

The gang had been following bloody footprints and vandalized property for what had to have been a mile already. They were fast approaching the outskirts of Purgatory’s center, the edge of the Pine Barrens looming on the horizon. Despite the steady breeze blowing through her hair, Wynonna couldn’t see a single branch swaying in the forest ahead.

 

“She better not have gone into that godforsaken forest. I’ve had more than enough of it for one lifetime,” she grumbled. But she could feel the fear starting to grip her chest as her heart sped up. In the dirt where the pavement ended, the footprints continued. It was all too clear Eva had gone straight for the cursed trees.

 

“In a way it might be safer for her there- lots of cover, no hunters go in there-”

 

“Yeah, cause of the  _ demons _ , Waverly, the same demons that want her head on a stick.”

 

“Then we have to follow her, Wynonna. You have the demon-killing gun, so I don’t think stepping out will be an option.”

 

Wynonna glared at the revolver in her hand. Stupid thing hadn’t been much help last time, getting itself abducted by a Skinwalker. Lord knows what was waiting this time in the Pine Barrens.

 

“Fine, fine. Just  _ stay close _ . Dolls and I got separated last time...and ironically that also ended with a flesh- hungry wolf shapeshifter...So basically I don’t need  _ anymore  _ deja-vu happening here so no matter what we  _ stick together _ .” She took a deep breath, and after a moment of hesitation, willed her feet to move forward towards the Pine Barrens. Waverly and Jeremy followed close behind.

 

The three started to approach the final dirt road intersection before the town ended and the wilderness of the Ghost River Triangle began. Out of the blue, they heard a rusty old truck engine roar to their right. A beat-up, green Chevy truck rolled up to the crossroads where Wynonna and the others had stopped. They eyed the truck warily with hands hovering over their weapons. The truck shifted into park and sat for a moment in silence where the two roads intersected.

 

Just as Wynonna was about to approach and see what the hell these guys wanted, a head popped out of the busted-through driver’s side window. The guy had a dirty, matted beard and a ratty black baseball cap perched on his head. When he smiled, the few teeth that were left were the color of tarnished silver. Two more men, similarly clad in unwashed, torn clothing appeared above the truck head where they had been hiding in the bed of the pickup. Both brandished shotguns at their sides and watched the trio with stoic, yet intense gazes. The driver popped open the door and stepped out onto the dusty roadway. His mangled boots were the color of dried blood- and Wynonna was sure he had not bought them that way.

 

He stopped ten paces from Wynonna, who had stepped protectively in front of her sister and Jeremy. Spotting Peacemaker at her side, already cocked and ready to fire, he grinned.

 

“Well, I’m glad to see you made this really easy for us, Wynonna,” his voice rasped like his throat was made of sand, and his tooth-ish grin grew wider. “Half your team gone and you’re still entering the Pine Barrens? Didn’t learn your lesson from Lou, I take it?”

 

“Well, you know me; crazy chick with a gun, mind starting to go with age- I don’t quite recall who you are. I’m guessing an old Lou groupie?”

 

“Something like that,” he sneered, his eyes turning hellfire red as his voice deepened. “But I have a new Master, now. And she wants that nice little gun you’ve got in your hand there.”

 

“Well I hate to break it to you, but Revenants can’t touch Peacemaker- it’ll turn your demon paws into crispy fried bacon.”

 

“Oh, we don’t have to touch that damned thing,” the leader chuckled, nodding his head back to one of his companions still perched in the truck bed. On cue, the other Revenant held up an empty flour sack and shook it for emphasis.

 

“So this is your grand plan now? Snatch Peacemaker and put it in a bag? You Revenants have really lost what little creativity you had in the old days.”

 

“Oh, this isn't  _ our _ plan, Earp,” the grin returned. “We are only small cogs in a much, much bigger scheme that you and your little band of misfits are  _ powerless  _ to stop. It’s already set in motion. And Willa  _ needs  _ her gun.”

 

“Well then tell  _ Willa  _ she can come get it herself, instead of having the lowest demons on the totem pole do her dirty work for her.” Wynonna flashed a sweet little grin and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, “Just a thought. I mean, this just helps me check off my list.” She raised Peacemaker to point right between the lead Revenant’s eyes, causing his brand to light up with the gun’s barrel. At the same moment, the two backup Revenants jumped from the back of the truck and landed behind their leader, shotguns pumped and ready to fire at Waverly and Jeremy.

 

“Only if you’re willing to take some collateral damage, sweetheart.” The demon chuckled and held out his hand, making a beckoning motion, “Just make this easy and hand over the gun. It can’t help you anyways when the Leonids come; I promise you won’t miss it.”

 

“Like hell I w-” The whistle and  _ thunk _ of a lead bullet meeting its mark firmly in Revenant brain interrupted Wynonna mid-sentence. She watched one of Head Rev’s backup gunners blink in confusion as his knees buckled under him and he collapsed to the ground, shotgun clattering uselessly in the dirt. Behind where he had been standing his shooter could now be seen, and she couldn’t look more pleased with herself.

 

“Tell Willa she can bite my bullet!” Alice smiled from behind her raised revolver.

 

Another bullet from the direction of the demons’ truck took out the second gunman, leaving only the leader left standing. The surprise backup had wiped the grin from his face.

 

“Alright, Frank Costello, on your knees.” Wynonna pointed Peacemaker at the Revenant’s forehead as he slowly knelt in the dust, the barrel humming in anticipation.

 

After a moment of taking in the scene around him, the smile crept back onto the demon’s face, “Go ahead, heir, shoot me. I’ll be back in no time anyways.”

 

“Look, dude, I know I’m no spring chicken but I’m not going under anytime soon. So you best not wait up,” she cocked the gun and put her finger on the trigger.

 

The Revenant laughed, wheezing to catch his breath before adding, “Not what I mean, Earp. The Great Lord Bulshar will END YOU!”

 

The sound of Peacemaker firing and the hellfire rising around the Revenant’s body punctuated his final threat. The fire reflected in Wynonna’s eyes, an unreadable look simmering within them. Dolls jumped down from the Revenant’s truck where he had stood to take out the second of the two gunners. Alice holstered her gun and walked towards the trio as the flames cleared.

 

“How the hell did you guys know where we were?” Waverly asked, looking between Dolls and Alice, her eyebrows raised in expectation of an answer.

 

“Jeremy called,” Alice pointed at the scientist who had set down the heavy duffel bag during the confrontation and was doing some deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. “When he didn’t speak on the line Dolls figured there was trouble, so we pinged that shit.”

 

“Oh! You have Dolls on speed dial; that’s so adorable,” Waverly smiled at Jeremy who had lowered his blushing face out of view.

 

“Waves, focus. Now that the Three Stooges have been dealt with we can-”

 

“Head back to the station and strategize our next move? Yes, we absolutely can do that.” Dolls interjected with a curt nod.

 

“No, you doofus, we need to kick it in high gear and find our refugee. She’s in the freakin’  _ Pine Barrens- _ ”

 

“And you know as well as I do that the Pine Barrens are not a force to be messed with, Wynonna. And there’s something even more off about them now than there was 18 years ago. There’s been a steady wind of approximately seven miles per hour since we’ve arrived, and those branches haven’t budged.”

 

Wynonna glanced back up at the trees lining the forest’s edge. They were quite still. Like cardboard cutouts of themselves. And something just made her hair stand on end.

 

_ Like they’re watching. _

 

“Okay, well she’s just a kid, Dolls. She’s...she’s definitely no older than Alice,” she gestured feebly at her own daughter, who was eying Dolls with a concerned look of her own.

 

“She’s right Dolls, we can’t leave Eva alone in there. She saved my life. I...I don’t want to leave her to Willa and the rest of them like that.”

 

“And we aren’t, Alice. We’re regrouping. It may not be ideal waiting to fetch Eva, but we are definitely no help to her dead. Besides-” he turned to face Waverly, “Revenant seemed mighty keen on these Leonids. And being willing to take a bullet from Peacemaker for them? They might be key in figuring out what the Cult of Bulshar are up to.”

 

“And that’ll keep everyone safe,” Waverly smiled. “Well, I think my  _ apprentice  _ might be able to help us on this one.”

 

“You really don’t like Little Miss Sunshine being mad at you, do you Waves?” Wynonna flashed a grin.

 

“Of course not, Wyn. She’s my little angel. Which is exactly why sometimes I have to be the bad guy. Or she’ll get herself hurt,” Waverly hesitated and glanced over at her sister as they started to follow Dolls, Alice, and Jeremy. “And I know you know what I mean,” she added quietly, glancing at Alice as she was talking animatedly with Jeremy.

 

Wynonna didn’t answer immediately, following her sister’s gaze instead.

 

“I might have an idea, yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look I'm back! Chapter 12 is halfway completed so hopefully it will be posted soon. Even if you have been keeping up with the story, I'd suggest re-reading the previous 10 chapters as I did make mild changes to get my plotlines on track. I have a pretty clear vision of where I want to go next, so hopefully I won't write myself into a corner again! I'm starting graduate school so there isn't going to be a set update schedule, just know that I am determined.


	12. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bulshar's plot is revealed and hope is renewed.

**July 17, 2034**

**The Devil’s Backbone, Pine Barrens, Ghost River Triangle**

 

_ The sharp stones cut into her feet as she tried to slow her stumbling run down the mountainside. A harsh cawing rang out over her head, which only made her scramble faster. The large black crow glided ahead of the fleeing girl, alighting on a barren branch a few yards in front of her. She stopped dead when her brown eyes met the bird’s dark beady ones.  _

 

_ “Eva, Eva, Eva...You’ve been very bad haven’t you? But you overestimated yourself; arrogance always was a problem for you, wasn’t it? Well, no matter- your loyalties are clearly tarnished now; there’s no way I can trust you anymore.” The crow spoke in a raspy voice as it condemned the escapee. “A soldier without loyalty is nothing but a mutt and a scoundrel; and so, you shall be put down as one.” _

 

_ The crow lifted off from the branch with a flap of its wings; wings that transformed into a flowing, ebony robe covering ghostly pale skin. One hand appeared to be made of silver and jewels as metallic claws grew from the fingertips. The smooth feathers of the crow’s head fell away to reveal wisps of white hair barely clinging to an aged scalp. Around the man’s neck were various gems, most prominently a large garnet. His eyes had gone from black to the same, deep red as that glimmering jewel.  _

 

_ The man rushed forward and gripped Eva’s neck with his human hand. She felt her feet leave the rocky ground as she was lifted into the air, like she weighed nothing to him. _

 

_ “Pater...please,” she gasped, grappling at his hand. But it wouldn’t loosen. Pater Castrum hissed an incantation as he traced lines over Eva’s face with a silver claw.  _

 

_ “ _ **_Mutare, mutare, mutare. Convertens a canis. Di tibi male faciant! Ululate nam cetera de vestri diebus!_ ** _ “ _

 

_ The claw tips started to glow as he scraped them across Eva’s face. She felt her body begin to convulse; her bones cracked as they started to shift beneath her skin, and her face felt like it had gone numb. Despite the pain, she couldn’t find the voice to scream.  _

 

_ Suddenly, a shot cracked the air. Eva felt the pressure in her neck disappear, and she collapsed to the ground. When she looked up, she saw Pater pulling a bullet from his silver hand, his eyes burning with an angry fire. The demon turned towards his assailant and was met with another bullet to the face.  _

 

_ “Now, you let her go, Malphas; I believe your quarrel is with me.” The man cocked his pistol a third time.  _

 

_ Malphas let out an unearthly roar and tore the second bullet from his cheek, without taking his eyes off of the shooter. “I have far more than a quarrel with you now, you decrepit imbecile of a-” A third crack as the man shot another bullet into the demon’s face. _

 

_ “Eva, go  _ **_now_ ** _! Find the Earps, they’ll help you!” The man yelled when he saw the girl was lying still on the ground and watching the confrontation unfold. With his command, she bolted down the mountainside, not bothering to watch where she put her feet as she slid down with the loosened stones. The last thing she heard was Malphas’ snide laugh. _

 

_ “The Earps won’t help her. Not with what she is.” _

 

_ His words were quickly followed by a bloodcurdling scream that could only have come from her rescuer. _

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**July 23, 2034**

**The Pine Barrens, Ghost River Triangle**

 

_ Find the Earps. Find. Find. Hunt- hunt run. Run. Run far away. Away from the caves. Down the rocks through the creek. Ignore the blood. Ignore the pain. Can’t feel your head, head is throbbing. Throbbing too fast- heart beating too fast. Can’t stop running. Birds overhead cawing- birds or demons? Heaving and panting, saliva drips down your dress. Can’t stop panting. Still running, the ground rushes closer but you are still running. Running. Running. Out of the woods, a wolf’s howl- impossibly close. Too close. In your head. _

 

Eva lay sprawled in a small dell, hidden under the canopy cover of summer-blooming trees. Her right ankle rested at an odd angle, broken as she had fallen through the brush and down to the bottom of the ditch. Her eyes were shut, chest rising and falling slowly with the rhythm of sleep. She could almost be taken for serene, her demeanor not revealing the nightmare unfolding under her eyelids. That calm was broken, however, by the loud crack of bone moving and a scream from a now very awake Eva as she jolted upright.

 

“Hold still, sweetheart, the worst is done,” a gentle southern drawl came from the direction of Eva’s feet. Trying to squint through her tear-blurred vision, she could just make out an older man with a thick mustache, thick brown hair curling around his neck, and a classic- looking blazer and button down shirt. He looked like he’d stepped straight out of Tombstone.

 

“Why are you fucking with my foot?” She gasped; the pain was still radiating from her ankle even though he hadn’t touched it any further.

 

“If you left that foot dangling all willy-nilly, you’d start to see the putrefaction of gangrene before sundown. Now, you at least have some blood flowing back through it.” The man had risen to his feet and removed his coat to hand it to Eva. She noticed he was careful not to make eye contact with her as he proffered the garment, and she realized- mortified- that she was completely nude. Eva snatched the coat and quickly covered herself up, clearing her throat to let the man know she was decent.

 

“My apologies for not offering my coat sooner, ma’am, but it takes time for the ethereal to become solid like the earth again- even with the Veil as thin as it is.”

 

Eva had several questions running through her mind: what Veil? Why was she naked in a forest ditch? Where were the Earps and their friends? Why did she have so many voids in her memory nowadays? But she settled on the simple one.

 

“Who are you?”

 

The man smiled gently and reached for the top of his head as if to remove a hat, and he scowled when he realized there was nothing there but air.

 

“We have met before, not too very long ago. I see the fiend has tampered with your memories as well as your body. Malphas never did have a shred of compassion in his impish little heart. It still baffles me as to why he would be in cahoots with the likes of Bulshar- the two never could stand one another.”

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who is Malphas?” Eva’s head still throbbed in pain and she rubbed it with her hand.

 

“Malphas is a Prince of Hell, better known on Earth as Pater Castrum. He is the current leader of the Cult of Bulshar during the man himself’s tenure down below. And as can be expected, he is up to no good.”

 

Eva’s eyes grew wide at the mention of Pater. In her mind’s eye, she saw him standing in a tunnel under the illumination of torchlight. His silver claws reaching out and grasping a small head of mousy brown hair, followed by red. Everything red.

 

The stranger knelt down beside Eva and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. It was cold, icy cold, and sent shivers up her spine. She looked over at her rescuer to ask her next question- what was he? But before she could open her mouth she noticed to her horror that she could see the trees behind him.  _ Through  _ him. With her hesitation he spoke first.

 

“The Veil is a finicky mistress, Eva. It seems my time is up for now in physical form. Stay here- you are safe from Bulshar’s Ascended as long as you remain in the dell. I have ensured that with what influence I have left. The Earps will retrieve you in due time, but I need you to have faith, Eva. Much more faith than you had in me last time.” She could see a glint of something in his eyes. Familiarity, perhaps pain? Moreso understanding. A moment passed and he was gone with a breeze that came through the trees. Leaving her alone with his coat, a broken ankle, and a well of questions. But above all, he left her with a name that she was sure the Earps could use: Malphas.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**July 23, 2034**

**Church Catacombs, Ghost River Triangle**

 

“It’s the Paroisse Catholique Saint Agnes.  _ That’s  _ where those infernal Watchers put the Eye. The bastards will have ensured I cannot set foot within a mile of the land I am sure. Which is why I am now forced to delegate this  _ incredibly  _ important task to you three. And I must say, if any one of you botch this mission, then none of you will have the  _ eyes _ to even gaze upon our salvation!”

 

Malphas stood before his crypt-altar, addressing three kneeling forms. They wore the simple black robes that denoted the members of the Cult, and their faces were the formless black set with amber eyes of the Ascended. The demon in the center shifted nervously and slowly looked up at his leader.

 

“Lord Malphas? Lord Malphas, I know your wisdom is vast and your intelligence will steer us right but...the Eye...isn’t it supposed to be of Saint Ephram? Not Agnes?”

 

Malphas eyed the questioner for a moment before huffing out a brisk smile, “Silly me, I didn’t think I’d have to explain what it means to  _ HIDE  _ a relic of the Ascension Spell!” His eyes burst with ruby flames and a scaly red tail shot out from under his robe and speared the stone floor, cracking it with the force of impact. “HIDE. As in where no one would look for it, you clodpole!”

 

The kneeling demon quickly lowered himself prone to the floor, “My apologies my Lord, I should not have questioned.”

 

“You’re right, you shouldn’t have,” Malphas had returned to his human demeanor and carefully stepped over the crack his tail had made in the floor to be closer to the group. He gestured with his hands for them to rise to their feet, which they all did in unison. The middle demon was now forced to look Malphas in the eye, which he tried desperately to avoid.

 

“You always had a mouth on you since you were a child,  _ Victor _ . Except I thought I was now speaking to Romulus, hmm? Or was I mistaken, and there’s a Mortal in my presence?”

 

“No, my Lord. Victor is dead. I am Romulus and completely at your service, my Lord.”

 

“Good.” Malphas flicked his gaze over to the Ascended demon to Romulus’s right. “Caligula, you lead this mission. Fuck it up, and speak to Bulshar yourself.”

 

Caligula bowed and with a wave of his arm led the other two out with him, leaving Malphas alone at his altar.

 

Once the others had left, Malphas sighed and tilted his head towards the cavernous ceiling above.

 

“Willa; be a dear and supervise those imbeciles. We cannot afford to have this mission botched by incompetence. I’m sure the Eye’s guardian will have Wynonna...preoccupied...giving you your chance at that damned gun you care so much about.”

 

Willa seemed to melt out of the shadows with a sly grin painted on her face, “Oh dear, Malphas, whatever would you do without me?” She lifted a clawed hand and ran the pointed tips along his cheek as she strolled out of the cavern.

 

Malphas’s face betrayed that he’d rather do without her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**July 23, 2034**

**Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“Eva’s been missing for 24 hours and we’re  _ still  _ here twiddling our asses and  _ doing  _ nothing! Those Ascended or whatevers could be torturing her for all we know! Or...or taking her back to the owner of that Hell-dagger- Peter or whatever!” Alice had been pacing restlessly around the Black Badge Office since they had returned late last night after the unscheduled Revenant encounter. No one on the team had gotten much sleep, instead trying to decipher the demon’s cryptic comments about “The Leonids”. All they had so far was that “Leonids” likely referred to the rare meteor shower set to light up the sky November 19 of this year. But what was so significant about this storm- and what Bulshar could possibly be planning- had eluded them.

 

This did not sit well with Alice.

 

Sienna glared up at her cousin from where she was nestled in a pink bean bag chair, surrounded by some volumes on meteorological events and Nostradamus doomsday prophecies.

 

“It’s sitting on our asses  _ or  _ twiddling our thumbs, dummy. Now, you can keep running around in circles or come help me draw out this story.” ‘Drawing out’ was Sienna’s term for illustrating whatever she was reading in her research; sometimes it was quite literally drawing a creature or map, other times, it could be more like a diagram with arrows reaching across the office whiteboard.

 

It was a technique she had learned from none other than her mother.

 

Alice let out an aggravated huff and trudged over to where the young girl was sitting. She held out a black marker to Alice and gestured to the empty board.

 

“This is from an old French Catholic priest handbook for one of the monasteries that were around Purgatory in the 1600s. Mark it ‘from the Purgatory Archives’,” she instructed Alice, who obliged with her much neater, more legible handwriting than the ten year old’s. “I don’t think this snippet was intended by the original publisher- it’s all scribbled in the back margins and is kiinndaaa smudgy. But here goes.”

 

Sienna took a big breath in and began.

 

“Beware the gates to Hell that lurk beneath the Monastery boughs. Upon penalty of your soul to damn, the Lock must remain impenetrabley Sealed, most of all when the Veil between the worlds of God and Demons and that of Man is no more. Only when the sky lights of Fire with the Judgment of The Lord should the Gates be opened- so He may smite the Devil once and for all and bring us Peace on Earth.”

 

Alice stopped her writing as Sienna paused (all capitalizations were emphasized by the girl for “historical accuracy”). “That sounds very Revelations, Sienna, you sure you got something legit?”

 

“Oh yeah, that’s just the preamble. Right below is a spell.”

 

“A spell? Like, the spell to open the gates to Hell?” Alice had to turn to give her cousin a disbelieving stare.

 

Sienna didn’t seem fazed by it, “According to this old priest or monk, yeah. Let me read the ingredients cause they get kinda freaky.”

 

“I’d expect no less…”Alice grumbled as she raised the marker to begin writing again.

 

“Seven ingredients are needed on the night of Revelation to open the Gates. The Watchers have hid something of Heaven, of the Saintly body of Father Ephram; something of Hell lurking below; something of love from the dawn of Time; something of hate not of our world; something to cure all who do ail; something to kill so Light can prevail; and a sacrificial lamb to bind these together- Heaven, Hell, and Earth, and open the Gates.”

 

“How extraordinarily vague,” Alice commented when she had finished writing. She stepped back to look at the results. “Do you guys think there’s anything to this?”

 

Waverly and Dolls came over from where they had been doing their own work- Dolls looking over Jeremy’s shoulder as he hacked into some Black Badge archives and giving him direction on what to search for, and Waverly working on some ancient scrolls of her own. She stopped in front of the white board where Alice had transcribed the document and quickly skimmed over the alleged spell. She mouthed something to herself and nodded absently before turning back to Dolls, “It might be something?” she scrunched up her face, “It’s always so hard to tell with how flowery language used to be. Sienna, can I see that book for a second?”

 

Sienna handed her mother the small pocketbook. It had a heavily eroded leather cover, and some of the pages had to be reattached with an industrial staple over the years. In the very back, behind some sample Easter sermons, was the scribbled spell and warning. At the bottom was a signature- smudged and worn with time, it could barely be read as “André Perley”.

 

Waverly’s eyes got wide when she recognized the name. “This is from a Perley! He...he must be Mattie and Greta’s ancestor!”

 

Wynonna wrinkled her brows from where she was sitting across from Jeremy, boots perched on the conference table, “Glinda and Elphaba? I thought they were Jewish?”

 

“They are, but antisemitism was pretty nasty in the 1600’s, especially in France. It wasn’t uncommon to keep being Jewish on the down low,” Waverly took another look at the message from the ancient warlock, “Especially if you have an important mission to complete…”

 

She handed the book back to Sienna and took up her own marker to the whiteboard.

 

“He mentions The Watchers hid these items; The Watchers are supposedly the sentinels that watch over Earth, a type of angel-”

 

“Oh hey, baby girl, it’s your people!” Wynonna interjected with a fist pump.

 

“It’s her what?” Alice tried to ask, but was cut off when Waverly continued to explain.

 

“If you want to hide something for centuries, or millenia, from demons, these would be the guys to do it. Even Bulshar would have his work cut out for him.”

 

“So how does great grand ancestor Perley know all about it, then?” Wynonna asked.

 

“The Watchers are angels; they can’t hang around on Earth for very long without things going south for them pretty quick. They’d need a liason on Earth, a mortal human, to keep the spell safe and know where the objects are, because one day-”

 

“They’d need to retrieve them. To...open the gates of Hell? That seems counter-intuitive. Isn’t the goal to  _ keep  _ the demons in Hell?” Alice interjected.

 

“You’d think so, but so far that solution has given us at least twenty different types of bullshit,” Wynonna grumbled, crossing her arms and staring intently at the board, and not at Alice standing next to her.

 

Waverly took the cue, “Hell seems to be…’leaky’ I guess you could say. We put the demons down there but they don’t seem to stay long. Or at least, it doesn’t stop their influence on Earth.”

 

“Perley is talking about a way to... _ end  _ demons. Why do you think this hasn’t been done before, Earp?” Dolls asked.

 

“Well for one it seems to need the Leonids meteor shower which only occurs a few times a century. Then it needs all these ingredients and maybe...maybe something just wasn’t right.” Waverly guessed.

 

“But something’s right now. Wait a minute, but if the Leonids are supposed to be Judgment Day for all demonkind, why were the Revenants so stoked about it? Shouldn’t they be shitting their pants and running screaming?” 

 

Wynonna nodded at her daughter’s comment, “She’s got a point, why are they acting like the Leonids are an upcoming Lynyrd Skynyrd concert?”

 

“Maybe they’re highjacking the Watcher’s plan,” Jeremy piped up from where he was sitting behind his laptop. “So it’s supposed to go ‘open the gates to Hell’ then ‘kill all demons, but what if the mechanism or person or creature that’s supposed to kill the demons isn’t there? Then it’s just ‘open the gates to Hell’, which I would be stoked about if I was a demon, you know.”

 

“That sounds exactly like some backstabbing, rat-ass shit Bulshar would pull,” Wynonna uncrossed her legs and kicked her chair out to stand. “So how do we make sure the ‘killing’ part hits him right in the ‘nads?”

 

“Get the items before Bulshar!” Sienna shouted, jumping to her feet in excitement, “And I made this break so you know I gotta come help!”

 

“Sienna, we have already had this discussion a million times. You help from  _ here _ . And look how good you are at it! You probably just unlocked Bulshar’s plan!” Waverly placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, though it did little to wipe the pout from her face.

 

“Yeah, but that spell still doesn’t tell us what these items are, let alone where to find them. Or hell, which ones Bulshar already has,” Wynonna added pointedly.

 

“Well, I did a quick search for Saint Ephram- you know, the one item mentioned by name? Guess when his feast day is?” Jeremy spun his laptop around to show the Google results page, “July 23” in bold font at the top. “Also, guess where he reportedly died? In the ‘woods of Purgatory, protecting the innocent from Satan’s henchmen’.”

 

“That means his body is probably-”

 

“-Buried in the goddamn Pine Barrens,” Wynonna groaned shot a look at Dolls.

 

“Find a refugee werewolf and a magical saint?” Dolls cocked an eyebrow.

 

“Well, of course, how else would I spend my Tuesday, Dolls?” Wynonna quipped and unholstered Peacemaker to load the barrel.

 

“And  _ you  _ are staying right here with Jeremy,” Waverly quickly told Sienna before she could protest.

 

“But-”

 

“No buts!” Waverly held up her finger and gestured to Jeremy. “You and Jeremy stay here and continue researching the rest of that spell. We need to know what these items could be and where they might be. Because  _ we  _ are gonna be the ones opening that portal.” Waverly knelt down and took her daughter’s face in her hands, “I love you, sweetheart, and you are  _ way _ smarter than the average bear. Which is why you know you have to stay here.”

 

Sienna huffed and nodded, accepting the kiss on her forehead.

 

In a matter of minutes the team had left the Black Badge office and left Sienna and Jeremy alone with their research. Sienna sighed and opened the next book in her stack. It was about prophetic revelations, so maybe some particulars of the Watchers or the spell would come up. She started skimming across the old ink and weathered parchment when a smidge of movement caught her eye. Her gaze automatically flickered to the top right corner of the page, where the parchment was blank.

 

Or it had been.

 

Before her eyes, she saw inked letters burst to life on the paper. They were written in a trembling scrawl, but the message was unmistakable:

 

**_Eva help. Follow me_ **

 

**_-Moose_ **

  
  


Sienna’s smile grew wider as she read the name. She glanced up and saw Jeremy engrossed in his laptop with his Beats on, head nodding to an unheard rhythm.

 

“I got you, Moose,” she whispered and gently closed the text.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really proud of this chapter so would love to hear comments from you guys! The action is definitely gonna be picking up big time and some super scary monsters are coming soon, along with lots of laughs, lots of angst. Gonna throw in some fluff too. 
> 
> Yes Waverly is Nephilim in this story which I had actually decided last year when I started the story, way before Julian and all that was revealed. Emily and I are just on the same page with that, apparently. =P


	13. The Trees Have Eyes

**July 23, 2034**

**The Pine Barrens, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“I’m gonna kill this old bag Ephram a second time just for getting his hide stuck in the damn Pine Barrens. Making my life even more difficult…” Wynonna grumbled as she trudged through the thick briars that knotted on the forest floor. Her boots did little stop the largest thorns from burying in her shins, but she just kicked the vines to the side.

 

Ahead of her, Nicole glanced back and grinned, “The more you talk, Earp, the more I’m convinced you’re the one with Sylvan Dread- not Dolls.”

 

Wynonna scoffed and dramatically kicked a cluster of dead briars towards the Sheriff- or at least attempted, since the ball stuck to her pants instead, forcing her to rip them off and toss them aside. “You know damn well why it’s so  _ freakin’  _ unsettling in here...They’re just watching our every move.”

 

“What happened to ‘quiet and focused’, hmm?” Dolls glared back from the front of the group, where he had been clearing the worst of the undergrowth with a machete to form a rudimentary path.

 

“Went out the window when the trees decided to slice my legs open,” Wynonna huffed.

 

Dolls sighed and turned his gaze to Waverly, who was behind Wynonna with his phone held up into the air like she was searching for a signal.

 

“We still heading in the right direction, Waverly?”

 

Waverly glanced down from the screen above her head and nodded before looking back at the live map she had pulled up. “Yes, yes looks like the right direction. The location where Saint Ephram died is supposed to be about a half mile ahead, it looks like.”

 

“Really?” Dolls stopped and placed his hand on an ancient pine that towered above their heads. On its trunk was a large gash in the bark. “I made that marker half an hour ago.”

 

Waverly lowered her phone and squinted at the marker. She slowly shook her head and looked around, noticing the underbrush had already been trampled down in front of them. Obviously, by them half an hour ago. They had gone in a circle.

 

“That-that doesn’t make any sense; the map shows us going in a straight line. Either the map is wrong-”

 

“-Or the forest is,” Wynonna cut in.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Oof! Fudgenuggets…” Sienna braced herself against the stump in front of her and carefully extricated her foot from where it had lodged underneath a partially unearthed tree root. Once she had regained her footing on the other side, she shifted her shoulders to readjust the kid’s hiking backpack she’d packed full of any and all supplies she thought she might need (and could quietly find around the office without Jeremy noticing). It wasn’t much: a change of clothes from Jeremy’s closet, a bottle of water, a small first aid kit, two apples, and a chocolate milk singles carton. But it would have to do.

 

Sienna stopped and looked around for her sign, and she caught it carved into one of the trees ahead: a simple  **M** . 

 

The girl had been following these M’s for the past twenty minutes since she had entered the thick woodland. She knew each one was bringing her closer to Eva and where she must be hiding. Though how Moose knew about Eva she would have to ask about later.

 

Sienna had never been near the Pine Barrens before, let alone deep enough within them to no longer see her way back. She was completely relying on her guide from this point on. Looking up at the canopy, the blue-gray sky was barely visible through the thick branches and evergreen needles. Oddly enough for a forest in the middle of summer, there was not a single note of birdsong or chirp of insects to be heard. She wouldn’t admit it, but the forest had the hairs on Sienna’s arms and neck standing on end, with a palpable electric charge in the air.

 

_ Mama always said the Pine Barrens were more than just supernatural. They are cursed. _

 

And beyond that, she knew there was more about the forest that her parents knew than they would let on. This sense of not-knowing followed the girl as she trekked, like the feeling that the trees were watching her with unblinking stares.

 

The next “M” that Sienna saw seemed larger than the previous ones, and this time had an addition: an arrow pointing downwards followed by what looked to be an exclamation point. She stepped forward slowly and peered down past the tree trunk, where she noticed that ground fell away sharply into a small ravine. Much of the view down was covered by a tangle of thick vines that seemed to sprout off of the large tree overhanging the ravine. Sienna knelt down on the ground and with both of her hands pulled some of the vines out of the way, just enough to see below. And she smiled when she saw who she’d been looking for.

 

Eva was lying in the leaf litter at the bottom, her body covered by a thick brown-colored coat. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be asleep. Sienna banged her hands on the vine canopy to try to get her friend’s attention.

 

“Eva! Eva! EEVVAA!” With the last shout, Eva’s eyes popped open and she looked around for the source of the voice, finally seeing Sienna’s small, red head poking through the plant cover above her.

 

“...Sienna? What the hell are you doing here? Where are your mothers?” The realization that her ten- year old rescuer seemed to be alone had Eva wide awake now, shuffling to sit upright while carefully keeping herself covered by the trenchcoat that- somehow- still existed.

 

Sienna rolled her eyes and got to work removing more of the vines in order to clear a pathway for herself to get down. While the ravine side was fairly steep, it did have clearly defined steps along the side where tree roots were sticking out, creating a natural ladder she could use. “They’re out hunting for the body of a saint, somewhere in this forest. I  _ had  _ to come get you; there’s no way they ever would have found you! But it’s not like Mama would just let me come get you so….I had to sneak away. But it’s okay! My uncle is guiding me.” Sienna carefully crawled down the root ladder and reached the bottom of the small ravine. It was barely big enough to hold Eva and Sienna both comfortably, with the lost girl’s back pressed against the opposite cliff face.

 

“Oh, so you brought your uncle! Is that Jeremy?”

 

Sienna chuckled and shook her head, “Wrong uncle. Umm...I didn’t  _ exactly  _ bring him...he guided me to where you are with signs carved on the trees- ‘M’ for Moose.” Sienna sat cross-legged next to Eva and shrugged off her backpack, pulling it around to fish out some supplies.

 

“You have an uncle named Moose?” Eva’s brows furrowed together in disbelief.

 

“Noooo silly, that’s just my nickname for him. He has a big ole mustache on his face and when I was a baby I thought it was super cool. But I couldn’t say ‘mustache’; I always ended up saying ‘moosta’ instead, so everyone just started calling him Moose around me. He...he died earlier this month. So it’s more like...my uncle’s  _ ghost  _ brought me here?” Sienna grimaced and glanced up at Eva, holding out one of the two apples she had brought, “Please don’t be freaked out, he’s really nice. And I’m really the only person he can talk to now so it  _ had  _ to be me who rescued you.”

 

Eva took the apple and bit into it, not realizing just how hungry she had been. “Honey, I have apparently spent the first eighteen years of my life in a supernatural demon cult, and now suffer from bouts of memory loss; benevolent ghost uncles are normal in my book. But...you said big mustache? He wouldn’t happen to have a coat like this, would he?” She pointed at the coat covering her body.

 

Sienna frowned and bent down to smell the fabric, holding one of the sleeves up to her nose. Her eyes widened when she recognized that warm, comforting scent of tobacco and whiskey that she would cuddle up in in front of the fire on cold winter nights, listening to stories of the old west. Reflexively, the girl jumped back and looked at Eva with a new uncertainty in her face. “How did you get his coat? He died with that on.”

 

Eva saw the accusation and glint of fear in her rescuer’s eyes and quickly shook her head to alleviate those fears, “Oh, no no no Sienna, don’t worry, he...found me down here and gave it to me since, somehow...I- lost all my clothes.” She lowered her head as the embarrassment crept up into her cheeks, “But how can a ghost give me a real coat?” She had to admit if she was Sienna, she wouldn’t buy this explanation.

 

But luckily Sienna seemed to believe it. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “But good thing I brought you a change of clothes. I figured you’d want them just because you haven’t gotten to shower for a while, but this reason is more urgent.” She unzipped the backpack again and pulled out a graphic t-shirt, pairs of sweatpants, boxer shorts, and socks. “It’s Jeremy’s, so no bra, but I figured it was better than nothing.”

 

Eva couldn’t help but laugh as she saw what Sienna had packed for her. It was a thoughtfulness that struck at her heart and, to her surprise, brought tears to her eyes.

 

Sienna saw Eva begin to cry and immediately worried she had done something wrong, “I’m sorry, Eva! Is it the shirt? I know you grew up in the cult so I wasn’t sure what pop culture reference you would prefer so I just played it safe with...oh shoot!” Sienna sighed when she saw she’d picked Jeremy’s  _ Stranger Things  _ Demogorgon shirt, “I picked a  _ demon _ ! That’s gotta be triggering, I’m so sorry-”

 

Eva shook her head to cut her off. “No, Sienna. I’m not offended. I just think it’s so sweet you thought of all this. Food, clothes, you are a  _ very  _ prepared rescuer. Thank you,” she added quietly while taking the clothes offered to her. But one question was still tickling at her mind.

 

“Sienna..?” she hesitated.

 

“Yeah?” The girl didn’t seem to notice her change in tone.

 

“What is your ghost uncle’s real name? I mean, if I come across him again, I don’t think I can just call him ‘Moose’- that’s your thing.”

 

“Oh, sorry, I forgot you might be curious. His real-real name is John Henry Holliday, but everybody calls him Doc. So that’s probably what you should stick with.”

 

Eva was surprised to feel her heart leap into her throat at the name ‘Doc’. But in a second, she knew why it had; the memories came rushing back to her like a broken dam. It was now that Sienna saw the change in her eyes.

 

“Eva? What’s wrong?”

 

“I...Sienna, I know your uncle. I knew him before, when he was alive.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Wynonna, this hasn’t happened since we sent Bulshar back to Hell. The trees have been more or less normal; creepy, but  _ normal _ . Definitely not going  _ Pan’s Labyrinth _ like they used to.”

 

“Well, it seems like they’re getting frisky again, Waves. Maybe it’s these Leonids everyone is so hyped about- the trees just gotta get in on the action.” Wynonna tried to suppress the shiver that she felt climbing up her spine when unseen eyes landed on her.

 

“Okay, I definitely need a debrief later on what the deal is with this forest, but for now- how the hell are we supposed to find Saint Ephram’s body if the map is useless? We’re lost!” Alice threw up her arms and looked to the others for an answer, determined to not let her fear show through.

 

“I think we should keep moving forward,” Nicole broke the silence with an assured nod of her head.

 

“And get more lost, Haught? What the hell are you talking about?”

 

“Waves is right, Wynonna; the forest hasn’t been active like this since Bulshar got sent south. I think if the trees are up to their old tricks again...they have a reason for it. I mean, I can’t be the only one who thinks they’d love to get one up on Bulshar for what he did?” Her gaze subconsciously flickered to Waverly’s for agreement, where she was met with a quiet nod.

 

Mulling it over for a moment, Wynonna nodded her concession, “You’re right. I don’t like that you’re right, but you probably are.” She shot a quick glance behind her at Alice before leaning in closer to whisper to Nicole, “But if we don’t hit anything in the next ten minutes, we try to head back. The deeper we go, the more dangerous it gets.”

 

Nicole nodded and gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, “Makes perfect sense, Earp. Okay, so our game plan is we’ll try for a little longer to see if we can find something-anything-related to this Saint Ephram. If not, we fall back and regroup.”

 

“And Eva?” Alice interjected.

 

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group. Wynonna took in a deep breath and turned to face her daughter, meeting her pointed gaze.

 

“We have no trail, no landmarks,  _ nothing  _ to even begin tracking her once she entered the Pine Barrens. You saw what we all saw- the footprints just  _ stopped _ . All we can do at this point is hope the forest shows her to us. I know it’s a shitty answer-” Wynonna stopped Alice before she could protest, “-but one thing I’ve learned is that sometimes...you lose people. No matter what you do, you lose people. We can try, but we can’t go on a suicide mission, Alice. You have to remember the main goal: destroy Bulshar and his stupid cult.”

 

“You said this mission was to find the relic  _ and  _ Eva!” Alice couldn’t help but raise her voice as she felt her stomach clenching.

 

“I said we’d keep an eye out for her; if we find her, great, if we don’t...we did what we could.”

 

“Except we didn’t! I’d be dead if it wasn’t for her, you know!”

 

“And I’m not risking you again just to get her back!” Wynonna shouted back, her voice breaking on the last words.

 

Alice’s expression went slack on first reaction, before shifting to a cold glare. She took a step back towards her aunt Waverly, away from Wynonna, without losing her mother’s gaze. “So you just, give up? Just like that?” 

 

When she realized what she had said, Wynonna cleared her throat and added in a hurried mutter, “It’s dangerous enough bringing you here at all; we’re not prolonging our stay by one second.”

 

Before anyone could speak up, she walked ahead on the path they had been forging, taking a left turn they hadn’t before. It left the others little choice but to follow.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**March 24, 2034**

**The Devil’s Backbone, Ghost River Triangle**

 

_ The flow of water tickled her toes as she dipped them into the small stream. A quiet retreat was a rare find, but one that Eva desperately needed at the moment. The Priests had been reminding her- hounding her even- about her upcoming birthday. _

 

_ “You’ll be eighteen years old, Eva. It’s the age of Ascension and you  _ must  _ be prepared for the sacrifice. It is an honored tradition for all followers of Lord Bulshar; you mustn’t be hesitant.” _

 

_ Their latest message about the ceremony had sent Eva’s stomach knotting and she could feel the bile rising in her throat. She had fled her flock- just to get away- for even a minute. She needed to vomit, to sit, to breathe. The stream had come like an oasis in the desert, right where she needed it. A fallen tree provided the perfect bench, and it was there she now sat, staring into the moving current. _

 

_ “These are dangerous woods to be out alone in.” _

 

_ The voice caught Eva off guard and she yelped in surprise, turning in her seat to see who had spoken. He was not one of The Priests, nor an Ascended come to find her. She...really didn’t know what he was. He was an older man, with curly brown hair speckled with gray. His head was adorned with a black stetson hat, and a large bushy mustache on his upper lip. He spoke in a thick accent that she had never heard before, but his vowels seemed to drag on. On reflex, she felt her right fist bunching in preparation to fight. _

 

_ He noticed and held out a hand, indicating to be at ease, and he removed his hat delicately, holding it to his chest. “I am sorry, ma’am, I did not mean to frighten you. I am merely concerned to see someone so young out in the Pine Barrens alone.” _

 

_ “I’m not alone,” Eva blurted out, unsure of why she was even speaking to this man. “My flock is not far away and they will find you in no time. You talk about these woods being dangerous for me but it’s  _ you  _ who should be worried.” She’d been taught this line a thousand times; any strangers meant harm to her and her flock and her safest bet was to let them know. It came out of her mouth almost like a script. _

 

_ The mysterious man did pause at her words, but not for the reason she had assumed. _

 

_ “Your flock? My dear, are you a part of the Cult of Bulshar?” _

 

_ Eva felt her face flinch in confusion, “Bulshar is my Lord and Protector and who you should beware.” _

 

_ He slowly put his hat back on his head and nodded. “I see. Well, my apologies, ma’am, for I do give Bulshar a healthy amount of respect. I do know what he is capable of all too well, I’m afraid. But you see, I frequent these woods, and never have I seen a follower of Bulshar out all alone, looking so sullen. Am I wrong to assume that you, too, have been on the receiving end of his wrath?” _

 

_ She couldn’t explain why she answered. Maybe it was because he was listening. Maybe it was the warmth in his eyes. Maybe it was the fatherly aura he seemed to have. Whatever it was, Eva answered, “Not his wrath; I have never done anything but obey him. It’s just...my birthday. At eighteen years old a new level of devotion is required of us and...I think I am scared. Very scared, of what he has asked.” _

 

_ The man nodded solemnly, taking a step forward and gesturing to the spot on the log next to Eva. She nodded and he took a seat beside her before speaking again. _

 

_ “I can only imagine how terrifying Bulshar’s request must be for you. And I may be  _ faarr  _ out of line, but you seem like a clear-headed girl. It sounds like you have doubts-” _

 

_ “-I can’t doubt my Lord.” _

 

_ “Maybe you can’t, but sometimes our hearts and minds do what they please. Sometimes, they know better than we even do. I can tell you there are many, many times I felt that doubt and I ignored it because I told myself I must. Nothing grows regret faster than ignoring your better half.” _

 

_ Eva stared down at the stream, unsure what to make of this advice that had come so literally out of the growing mists. _

 

_ “Why are you telling me this?” _

 

_ The man shrugged his shoulders, “Felt compelled too. Maybe because I have a daughter myself- she’d be about your age, actually. Never got a chance to be there for her. Maybe one day I will, as it is all I hope for in this world. But if I can’t help her, I will help another man’s daughter when he cannot. It only feels right.” _

 

_ “My name is Eva,” she confessed, finally turning to look at the stranger. _

 

_ He smiled, and reached out his calloused hand for a shake, “And I am Doc; pleasure is all mine, Eva.” _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**July 23, 2034**

**Pine Barrens, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

“Doc was out in the Pine Barrens? He never told anyone about that, I’m positive...Auntie Nonna would have a  _ fit  _ if she knew he was out there! And wait...do you remember what ‘the sacrifice’ was supposed to be?” Sienna had guided an injured Eva up the tree root ladder to get out of the ravine- after bandaging her ankle and taking some small branches to tie a makeshift splint. Now the pair were trudging along the path of “M’s” Doc had left, with Eva’s arm over Sienna’s shoulder so the younger girl could help support her bad side. Eva had changed into Jeremy’s clothes and had Doc’s coat tied around her waist. This left it dragging on the forest floor, but the two had figured there was nothing else they could do.

 

Eva thought hard but shook her head when she couldn’t recall any further memories, “I have no clue what the sacrifice was supposed to be. All I know is it had to have been very, very bad. Maybe it’s better I don’t remember it. But, Doc’s daughter...that would be Alice, right?”

 

Sienna nodded while keeping her eyes focused ahead, searching for the next marker she knew had to be coming up. “Yep, that’s Alice. She was sent away to live with our Great Aunt Gus when she was just a baby, to keep her safe from the curse and all that.”

 

“That is sad, don’t you think? Look at us; we both knew her father and...she never even got to say hello? I feel horribly guilty.”

 

“Don’t feel guilty, Eva, it’s not your fault. Besides, it sounds like he wanted to help you. Did you ever see him again?”

 

“I..I think so, yes. But I can’t remember much more. Not yet. Sorry.” Eva grimaced, partly from pain, partly from that lingering guilt that she still felt bubbling up into her chest.

 

When the normally chatty Sienna didn’t respond right away, Eva looked over to see if she was alright. She felt the girl stop them as she frantically looked around, scanning the trees.

 

“What’s wrong, Sienna?” she asked as she started to look around too. And then she noticed: no ‘M’. There hadn’t been an ‘M’ for far too long.

 

“Umm..” Sienna gulped and was clearly trying to keep her composure, “I think we may be a  _ teeny _ bit lost.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I swear to god, Ephram! You better show up in the next five seconds or I’m gonna-”

 

The words died on Wynonna’s tongue as she parted the next in a seemingly endless series of bushes. In front of her was not more undergrowth, as she had been expecting, but a wide open field. Thick mists had rolled in, obscuring the team’s sight into what lay ahead. Stepping out from the trees, the air temperature seemed to plummet, and everyone pulled their coats a little closer. It felt like stepping into winter in the midst of summer. Not much could be seen through the heavy mist- fog, truly, at this point, since it seemed to grow thicker by the minute- except for three tall stone spires climbing past the surrounding treetops.

 

“Jesus Christ…” Alice whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from the ancient structure looming ahead, almost as if it had been placed there for them to find- the field curving just a little too perfectly, the location too remote.

 

“Yeah, something tells me he doesn’t frequent around here anymore,” Dolls responded before walking a bit further ahead to try to get a better look. As if on cue, some of the mist began to part, and everyone could take in what lay before them.

 

It was clearly an old cathedral- “older than Nedley’s favorite recliner” Wynonna muttered- made of stone that looked to be barely holding itself together. One spire towered above the giant, wooden double- doors of the entrance, and the other two were spaced at symmetrical angles behind at the two other corners of the building. Overall, it was shaped like a triangle. The roof was steep and pointed between the spires, edged with what seemed to be intricate stonework, gargoyles, and statues of saints. At various spots in the walls and roof, stone had fallen in, leaving gaping, dark holes. Vines grew heavy in the cracks, only accentuating the building’s obvious age, and accelerating its decay. Judging by the rope-thick vines growing across the main entrance, the church had been abandoned for a very, very long time.

 

It seemed like an eternity before anyone spoke, though it had likely only been a minute.

 

Wynonna pulled a thin flashlight from her belt and flicked it on, pointing it ahead at the sealed doors, brushing aside the feeling that the doors were looking right back at her. She spun around and beckoned with her free hand to the others.

 

“What do you say we pay a visit to ole Ephram, shall we?”

 

The team slowly made their way towards the church, Wynonna leading. Waverly hung near the back, and stopped for a last moment to shake out her jitters before getting closer.

 

“Hope he likes interesting company,” she murmured to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter has lots of ACTION and new creepy af supernatural beasts. Also I thought it'd be nice to provide you guys with the song that inspired the title of this fic! It's by country band Delta Rae who has a lot of excellent music.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhY9ABTfOYk
> 
> Grad school just started yesterday so I'm not sure how updating will go; I have a good idea of what I'm doing next so I'm not anticipating too much issue with writers block so I am hoping to get an update in the next week. But I can't make any guarantees. If you want more up to date info on my writing progress you can follow my tumblr @the-battle-lesbian where I usually make posts about when I expect to update and what may be to come.


	14. Ambush

**November 19, 2023**

**Purgatory Sheriff’s Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

_ Wynonna stumbled into the Purgatory Sheriff’s Department, nursing a near empty bottle of whiskey. She attempted another swig, but missed her mouth due to a mix of her shot coordination and trembling limbs from the cold that she was decidedly not dressed for. In frustration, she threw the bottle against the wall where it shattered, the crash echoing off the empty hallway walls. The night deputy had long since adjusted to Wynonna entering the station like this, late late at night. It had been this way for months; fighting everything supernatural in sight during the day, getting drunk, then trying to continue her sister’s research in the dark of night when she couldn’t sleep a wink. _

 

_ It was a well worn pattern- one that Wynonna could reliably keep up with in a drunken, sleep-deprived state. But tonight that pattern was broken by the sound of a shrill cry coming from the Black Badge Office, whose door was ajar. Unusual. _

 

_ Wynonna squinted and trudged towards the crying, which continued in the distinct rhythmic beat that finally penetrated her mental fog and raised the sense of deja vu- it was a baby crying. Her eyes shot wide open and she half stumbled- half jogged into the darkened office room. At the same time that she flicked the switch on, she saw Jeremy open the door to his bedroom and wander out, rubbing his eyes. In the light, she could now clearly see who had been startled awake by the breaking whiskey bottle. _

 

_ The baby was small, probably no more than a month old. She was wrapped in several layers of blankets and rags, all stuffed in a wicker basket still dotted with snowflakes from the shower outside. The basket had been placed on the central conference table, between a few stacks of Waverly’s books and notes. But despite her young age, she already had some wisps of light red hair peeking out from the blanket wrapped around her head. The sudden bright light had done nothing to improve her state of distress. _

 

_ Wynonna stared blankly at the baby, then turned to Jeremy. _

 

_ “Where did you get a baby?” _

 

_ “Uhh, that’s not my baby,” Jeremy stuttered and rubbed his eyes again for good measure, just to confirm to himself what he was seeing. _

 

_ “Babies don’t just  _ appear,  _ Jeremy. Where the fuck did she come from?” Wynonna could feel an anger rising in her voice. She was too drunk, cold, and stunned to understand why. _

 

_ Jeremy held up his hands, now wide awake upon hearing the edge in his friend’s voice, “Hey, I don’t know. But judging by the snow on the basket, someone dropped her off while I was sleeping.” He walked over to the basket and gently unwound a piece of twine that held a note in place on the handle. _

 

_ “It says...she’s for us?” Jeremy held up the note to show Wynonna the words written in a trembling script. Or a hasty one. _

 

For the Earps. Please take care of her.

 

_ “What kind of joke is this?” Wynonna scoffed and averted her gaze from Jeremy and the baby. “I don’t want a  _ baby _ , Jeremy.” _

 

_ “Okay,” Jeremy responded gently, “I’ll call Waves and Nicole. Nicole can get in touch with a social worker from the big city and have them come out in the morning. You don’t have to worry about a thing.” _

 

_ It may have been sleep coming back over him, but Jeremy thought he heard a muttered ‘thanks’ as Wynonna walked back out of the station. _

 

_ Meanwhile, the baby was still crying over having been woken, so Jeremy gently took her and her ten blankets into his arms and rocked her gently. “I know, it sucks to get woken up at three in the morning, doesn’t it?” With the touch and movement, her cries began to subside, eyes still firmly shut with want of sleep. _

 

_ ……………………… _

**The Earp Homestead, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

_ “Nicole, are you sure this is safe? I mean, she’s a  _ baby,  _ not a stray puppy!” _

 

_ “Waves, I promise this works perfectly as a makeshift bassinet; cardboard boxes are used in Finland all the time. They’re actually safer than a lot of cribs since they’re flat.” _

 

_ “And what about formula? She’ll need feedings about every 2 hours I’m pretty sure. And we’ve got...8 hours before you said the social worker can be here. Do you think it’s warm enough up here? I turned the heat up but it usually takes some time to travel upstairs and Google said babies can’t regulate their temperature- they're like tiny, helpless turtles, Nicole!” _

 

_ “Waves!” Nicole put her hands on Waverly’s shoulders to still her panicking girlfriend, “She’s fine. Look, she’s finally settled down some-” _

 

_ The sound of the front door to the Homestead opening and closing on its creaky hinges signaled that Doc had returned with the formula, and also the end of the baby’s peaceful slumber as she began to cry again. _

 

_ Waverly groaned and looked up at Nicole with pleading eyes. _

 

_ “Don’t worry, Waves, I’ve got this. You go prepare a bottle and we’ll be up here waiting.” Nicole smiled, squeezing her hands reassuringly. _

 

_ Waverly exhaled loudly and nodded, “Okay, okay.” She gave Nicole a quick peck on the lips before heading downstairs. _

 

_ Nicole watched her go before turning around to the cardboard bassinet she had whipped together and placed on their bed. Still wrapped in her layers of blankets (since the appropriate winter onesie had just arrived with Doc) the baby squirmed against the loose swaddle with irritation at having been woken up. Again. Or possibly due to hunger. It was hard to tell. _

 

_ “Hey there, little pumpkin. I know, I know, it’s been an eventful night, hasn’t it?” She picked up the bundled baby and cradled her close to her chest, trying to rock her back to sleep. But she was not being so easily soothed this time around. Despite Nicole’s gentle rocking, she continued to cry louder. _

 

_ “Okay, I have one more trick up my sleeve for you. Hope my voice isn’t too off-key for you. I hear kids are the harshest critics,” she laughed softly before shifting her tone into a musical one, and beginning the lullaby she remembered being sung as a child decades ago: _

 

_ “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, _

_ Never let it fade away. _

_ Catch a falling star and put in your pocket, _

_ Save it for a rainy day.” _

 

_ When Nicole began to softly sing, swaying back and forth on her feet, the baby’s cries started to subside. Small hazel eyes looked up at the smiling face above her as she listened intently. _

 

_ “For love may come and tap you on the shoulder, _

_ Some star-less night. _

_ And just in case you feel you want to hold her, _

_ You’ll have a pocket full of starlight.” _

 

_ The baby’s face cracked into a big smile, which made Nicole smile wider as she continued singing. Spurred on by the little girl’s delighted reaction, she began to gently dip her down and back up in a joyful dance. _

 

_ “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, _

_ Save it for a rainy day. _

_ Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, _

_ Never let it fade away.” _

 

_ The baby burst into loud squeals of delight as she was dipped and brought back up to her new favorite face. Her arms started to flail under the blankets as she made a poorly coordinated attempt to reach out and touch the singing mouth. _

 

_ Nicole laughed and placed a kiss on her forehead. When she looked up, she saw Waverly standing in the doorway with a bottle. A small smile graced her face, and the look in her eyes was one Nicole hadn’t seen before. Nicole was glad that the low light in the room could hide the blush creeping across her cheeks. She sat on the edge of their bed and took the warm bottle from Waverly. It only took moments for the baby to latch on and begin suckling away at the formula. It had probably been hours since she last got to eat. _

 

_ Waverly sat down next to them, leaning into Nicole’s side, and gently ran a finger along the baby’s plump cheek. She stopped briefly to play with the delicate strands of ginger hair on the girl’s tiny head. _

 

_ “She looks like you, you know,” Waverly whispered, “And it seems like you two are already thick as thieves.” She glanced up to catch Nicole’s gaze, and hoped her girlfriend would be able to read what she was trying to say. _

 

_ “You know,” Nicole began after a moment of silence, “Jeremy said she was left with a note that said ‘the Earps’ needed to take care of her. Considering our reputation and that of Purgatory in general, I would think there’s a reason she wasn’t given directly to a hospital or CPS.” _

 

_ “I know, sweetie, but Wynonna...She sees a baby and all she can think of is Alice…” Waverly sighed and looked back down at the baby cradled in Nicole’s arms. Seeing her tiny, chunky body protected and safe in her girlfriend’s arms. Remembering the smiles she had seen on both of them as Nicole sang that sweet lullaby. Suddenly the thought of handing that precious little child over to a social worker in the morning seemed an unbearable thought. _

 

_ “Waves….You know I love Wynonna, but we can’t make major decisions about  _ our _ lives around her. It’s not fair to us. Besides….I bet Wynonna would benefit a lot more than she’d care to say having a baby around. Doc too.” _

 

_ “So...what are you proposing?” Waverly bit her lip and smiled as Nicole leaned in to kiss her. _

 

_ “I am proposing...that we adopt a baby.” _

 

_ “I like that proposal.” _

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**The Paroisse Catholique Saint Agnes, Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

It took several swings of the machete to cleave away the ancient vines binding the front entrance shut. And even then, the doors could only be pried open far enough to allow one person in at a time. Moving the old oak door must have disturbed a thick layer of dust that had settled on the floor of the cathedral, since a cloud of it now obscured everyone’s vision and elicited multiple bouts of coughing.

 

Wynonna swept her flashlight around the room in front of them. It seemed to be a grand foyer, with high arching ceilings that opened up in spots where the roof had caved in. Stained glass murals lined each side of the hall, though most of them were now obscured by layers of dirt and vegetation- if not entirely smashed through. A giant, marble baptismal font rose in front of them, and Wynonna tilted her light up to the edge of the bowl to get a glimpse of what was inside.

 

She immediately dropped the light with a string of curses and a barely disguised jump when what was inside the font met her eyes.

 

Clearly, the font had been dry of holy water for centuries at this point. Hanging over the rim was the top half of a shriveled body. Its skin had shrunk down to cling to skinny bones, taking on the appearance of flaking, black leather. Its arms hung limp, reaching towards the floor. But the face- the face was another matter; its head was upturned, facing the door the team had just entered through, and it seemed to be rigidly stuck in that position. Its mouth was wide open in a silent scream, revealing rows of needle-point teeth. Empty eye sockets stared right back at Wynonna, who had taken a few steps back and was looking anywhere but the font.

 

“ _ This _ is why you were never baptized,” she said dryly to Alice, shaking her head as if to rid her mind of the face she had just seen. But an unintentional glance back at the font brought it right back, along with a grimace on her own face.

 

Waverly stepped forward and reached out a hand, gently touching the crown of horns on the body’s head.

 

“I mean...at least it’s a dead  _ demon _ , right? Maybe this is just a  _ really  _ hardcore church? Think about it; the Watchers would want to protect the relics for the spell from any nefarious forces that would intercept them. So, demons are in danger here, but maybe we aren’t?”

 

“Waves, are you sure 50% is enough angel to get you security clearance in the Bates Motel of churches?” Wynonna quipped with a roll of her eyes. Alice had long since noticed that this is what her mother did when she was nervous- throw out the jokes. But another part of her mother’s statement was what caught her ear this time, “Wait- Waverly is half  _ angel _ ? Like, Heavens above, fighting demons for a living  _ angel _ ?”

 

_ What the hell even is my family? _

 

Waverly waved her hand as if to brush it off, “It’s quite a long story- and I’ll tell you all about it! I promise, but after we finish this mission. And Wynonna- I mean maybe? It’s definitely better than being closer to the ‘demon’ end of the spectrum, I’m thinking.” She punctuated her sentence with a gesture towards the font body.

 

“Yeah, except not all of us probably meet holier-than-thou, stick-up-the-butt standards of ‘not too demony’.” Wynonna flashed a glance at Dolls to remind her sister, who made a silent “oh” of recognition and nodded. “Well, we can’t jump to conclusions, but it’s definitely smart to keep our guards up; we don’t know what is guarding the relic, but something definitely is.” Another glance at the body, posed like a warning, “Something very nasty.”

 

“This place is huge, Waves; we could search for days and still not cover everywhere. Any idea where a saint’s body is likely to be in a cathedral this huge?” Nicole asked.

 

“Well, something as important as the body of a saint is likely to be given its own chapel, with a crypt inside. So it’s likely going to be in one of the two wings; I bet the right wing, since that’s supposed to be the ‘most holy’ side, compared to left,” Waverly took out her own flashlight to help light up the right wall of the foyer, and as expected, she found a large, dark archway that marked the entrance to the right wing. She walked towards the arch and tentatively shone her light down the adjacent hall; more stained glass murals graced the outer wall of the cathedral, all the way down to the spire at the very end of the wing. The closest murals seemed to portray the Book of Genesis, with the Seven Days of Creation beginning at the foyer arch. On the interior wall, to Waverly’s left, appeared to be a series of inscriptions spaced along the stone slabs. Each slab had its own inscription, with the slabs stacked five high for what seemed to be the entire length of the hall. She ran her hand over the closest one, and though it was largely eroded away, could make out what it was: a name. She looked up. The one above, too, appeared to be a name. With the next name, and the next name, an old medieval practice came to the forefront of Waverly’s memory. She stepped back into the foyer with the rest of the group and tried to give Wynonna her best placating look.

 

“Okay, you aren’t going to like this, but in the Middle Ages and for a time after, it wasn’t uncommon for churches- particularly those with an in-house monastery or convent- to sorta... _ bury  _ their dead within the church walls. You know, ‘hold up the church in life, and so in death’ type philosophy.  _ But _ \- they are all behind stone that weighs at least 500 pounds a piece, and also very dead at this point, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”

 

Wynonna gave her sister a pointed look, “I swear, Waves, if even one of them pulls a Constance Clootie on us, you owe me a month’s worth of the  _ booziest  _ bourbon cupcakes you have ever made in your life.”

 

Waverly rolled her eyes and held up her hand in the three-finger salute, “Scout’s honor. Even zombie Constance Clootie couldn’t move 500 pounds of stone. Now, the longer we dilly-dally, the more creeped we’re gonna get! Let’s get a move on, get this Ephram, and get the heck out of here.” She spun on her heels and marched back into the right wing hallway, only to backpedal a few seconds later at the sound of one of the stained glass windows being smashed and feet landing on the stone ground. She quietly ushered everyone against the wall shared by the foyer and the hallway, with her and Wynonna at the front under the archway. Without being able to use their flashlights- lest they alert their new company to their presence- it was impossible to see who had entered, or how many there were.

 

Some shuffling of broken glass on stone before one of the intruders spoke up, “She said it was in this wing, at the top of the spire. Azar, come with me to retrieve it. Romulus, stay down here to keep guard. We don’t know what else may be protecting the Eye.” The sound of two sets of footsteps faded further down the hall, heading towards the right spire. The third intruder, left as lookout, could be heard kicking at the glass shards scattered on the ground.

 

“ _ We don’t know what else may be protecting the Eye-  _ You know as well as I do the damn forest is the relic’s guardian,” he mocked and spat at the ground. “It sure gave us enough trouble getting here. The Veil thinning around the Paroisse for Ephram’s feast day is probably the only reason we got through at all. But fine, leave me here, babysitting a bunch of dead nun bitches.” Though it couldn’t be seen by the team, he glared at the stone slabs lined along the opposite wall.

 

The  _ clink _ of a loose pebble being kicked across the floor near the foyer caught his attention. Amber eyes whipped up to catch a flash of black hair retreating behind the arch.

 

“ _How_ did you imbeciles get-” his roar was cut short by the _bang_ of a gun and a bullet to the forehead. The moment Peacemaker’s lead made contact with the shadow form he dissolved into the floor, leaving only a dark linen robe behind as evidence that he was ever there.

 

Wynonna flicked on her flashlight to illuminate the pile of clothes where the demon had been standing. Alice slowly peered out from behind her with a guilt-ridden grimace on her face.

 

“Sorry...about that.” She tried to flash her best winning smile (as Aunt Gus had always called them).

 

Wynonna glanced at Alice, flashed the light in her eyes to turn the smile into a scrunched-up squint, and shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry means nothing now- our cover is blown. Which  _ means  _ it’s time for lightning speed and reckless abandon- my forté.” She winked at Dolls, cocked Peacemaker, and started sprinting down the hall towards the spire’s staircase.

 

Alice took out her father’s gun-  _ my gun now I guess _ \- and scrambled to load the chamber in the pitch blackness. Somewhere in the process her fingers missed the chamber, and a couple bullets slipped out of her grasp and clanged on the floor.

 

“Waverly, Haught-  _ someone _ keep tabs on Alice! Don’t need anything else going fakakta tonight,” Wynonna yelled over her shoulder without stopping. Waverly used the light of her flashlight to gather the dropped bullets and handed them back to her niece. She placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, “It’s good to be scared; there’s really good reason for it right now. Just take some deep breaths, and stay close to us, okay?”

 

Alice swallowed the nervousness she felt bubbling up from her chest and nodded. This was a real mission- really, really, life-or-death  _ real _ \- sure as hell no turning back now. Not without that relic. Dolls had already gone ahead to meet up with Wynonna, leaving Alice and her aunts to play catch up as they ran towards the spiralling stairs leading up to the top of the church’s spire.

 

What they had failed to notice on the wall of the hallway they left behind was a skeletal hand peeking out from its crypt in the wall, where the slab door had chipped away. With jerking movements that dislodged a thick net of cobwebs, the fingers curled around to get a better grip on the edge.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“Okay- don’t panic! I did girl scouts for a couple years, so I know basic wilderness survival stuff,” Sienna looked around at the trees surrounding them, racking her brain for a trick that might be able to help.

 

“Only a couple of years? What happened with it?”

 

“The practicality of it burned out pretty quick. I mean, it’s not like they teach the proper techniques for staking a vampire or how to protect yourself from demons or anything like  _ that _ ,” Sienna frowned and cast another glance at the scene around them. They had stopped walking while Sienna tried to plan their next move.

 

Then it hit her. “I remember... _ streams _ ! Finding a stream is good because it gives you a set path to follow. And the Pine Barrens are all on the mountainsides, meaning if we find a stream, following its flow downstream  _ should  _ lead us to the outer edge of the forest! Yes!” She did a fistpump with the arm not helping to support Eva.

 

“And what if supernaturally cursed forests don’t follow the laws of gravity?” Eva asked wryly, trying to ignore the throbbing that was picking up again in her injured ankle.

 

Her companion shrugged, “I don’t know, cause this is all I got. So they better.”

 

“Well, I think I hear water flowing a bit in that direction,” Eva nodded to their right. Visually, no signs of water were apparent from where they stood. And even straining her ears, Sienna couldn’t make out any sounds.

 

“I can’t hear anything, but I trust you. You must have got some super ears!”

 

The realization that only she could hear the water- which she checked again and she could  _ definitely  _ hear water- left Eva puzzled, “I guess so? Not sure how that happened…”

 

Sienna opened her mouth to respond but then quickly closed it before Eva could notice. That kind of news was probably best delivered once they were safe.

 

Instead she said, “Okay, so since you can hear it, lead the way, Eva!” Sienna readjusted her arm supporting Eva and turned them slightly to the right, so that they could follow the path as Eva heard it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**The Paroisse Catholique Saint Agnes, Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“I heard something downstairs, sir- it got Romulus.”

 

“Forget him- our mission is to get the Eye and get the hell out. Whatever is guarding it, we have no hope of fighting. Take it as a good sign- the guardian stepped away from it’s precious relic with enough time to snatch it”

 

Caligula strode through the lowlit chamber at the top of the tower. Unlike the rest of the Paroisse, this room did not appear to be abandoned for long. Candles lined the chamber walls and were perched in twisting metal sconces near the ceiling, forming a halo of flickering light. On the far side of the chamber, opposite the start of the stairs, stood a tall marble statue of a robed nun. Her stone had faded and cracked from the ravages of time, with the most pronounced deformity being the gash across her face. It looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer between her vacant stone eyes. Her hands were held out in front of her, palms up, in a gesture of religious benediction. In each hand was an identical, piercing blue eye. Each one was positioned to stare at the entrance to the chamber, and despite their age, they glistened in the firelight.

 

“Malphas never mentioned two Eyes, Caligula. Two relics, or one decoy?” Azar asked from where he had hung back by the staircase entrance.

 

Caligula growled under his breath as he looked between the two eyes in front of him. There was not a speck of difference between the two. They almost seemed to mock him, just sitting under the demon’s scrutiny and never wavering from their gaze ahead. “One has to be a decoy” he muttered.

 

“Fuck it, just take both! I hear the guardian coming up the stairs!” Azar yelled.

 

Caligula growled and reached out with both hands, simultaneously grabbing both eyes. They were wet and slimy in his hands, making them difficult to keep a hold of.

 

“Let’s g-” Azar was cut off abruptly by a bang and his subsequent dissolution. Caligula bolted for the tower window but halted when he felt the tingling burn on the back of his neck that could only mean one thing- Peacemaker had him in its sights.

 

“Hey now, not so fast. I think you have something that I’ve been looking for,” Wynonna took a few steps forward as she eyed the demon up and down in the candlelight. “Caligula, right? Kind of on the nose, I think, using that name. I give it two out of ten for creativity in the demon moniker department. Now what was that other guy’s name? Azo? Azar? Now that’s more like it. It has a ‘z’ in it. Very demonic.”

 

“Put the gun down and we can all walk away from this, Earp,” Caligula said in a low voice, only half turning to face Wynonna.

 

“Not gonna work, Nero. You see, my plan is for you to dissolve into the ground like the Wicked Witch of the West, and I get to walk out of here with some dead guy bits.”

 

“You try to take me out and leave with the relics, and you will all die. There is a guardian here that no one can hope to face and live to tell about.”

 

Wynonna looked around the room, noting only Dolls and the rest of her team lined on the stars outside, ready for their next move. “Not seeing any big scary guardians around here. Nice try though.”

 

“You naive, big-mouthed bitch! The Allagís will  _ eviscerate _ you! It will never let these leave the Paroisse walls!” Caligula held up one of the eyes to Wynonna, only to have it rapidly dissolve into a thick ooze that ran between his fingers. His face fell slack, amber eyes filling with terror as the eye in his other hand did the same.

 

“No-no no no! The relics! They can’t both be decoys!” He scrambled through the sticky slime covering the chamber floor, grasping for any sign that an eye was still intact.

 

“I have failed, my Lord,” Caligula whimpered to the skies as a loud  _ crack  _ shook the spire tower. On the stairs below, Alice gripped the ancient iron railing tight when she felt her feet slip from under her. Another  _ crack  _ seemed to move the entire church at its foundations.

 

“Wynonna, what the  _ hell  _ is going on up there?” Nicole yelled over the cacophony of falling rocks and shifting ground.

 

In the chamber, the candlelight seemed to double in brightness as the flames flared. The crack marring the face of the nun statue was growing with each shudder and bang. Marble hands cracked at the joints as something underneath them flexed, shaking off the bits of stone to reveal white-gloved hands.

 

Caligula stayed kneeling on the floor, muttering something Latin under his breath as his eyes fixed on the ceiling above.

 

Wynonna slowly stepped back towards the stairs where Dolls had his gun aimed at the transforming statue.

 

_ Crack. _

 

Her chest split into halves that crashed onto the chamber floor. Underneath was a torn nun’s robe, clinging to a form that radiated white light through the tears in the fabric.

 

“As Jeremy would say-” Wynonna started.

 

_ Crack. _

 

The statue head shattered with the force of something detonating on the inside. It revealed a human skull, clothed in a nun’s habit. The space between each bone radiated the same blinding white light as the rest of the body. The only thing that seemed to shine brighter was the single, piercing blue eye fixed into the left eye socket.

 

“-I think we’ve reached the boss battle.” Wynonna pulled the trigger on Peacemaker, only to hear it click uselessly.

 

Hearing the click, the eye swiveled in the skeletal nun’s head to fixate directly on Wynonna.

 

_ Crack. _

 

The rest of the marble crumbled away with a final push from the creature inside. Among the dust, the nun took its first hesitant steps off of the platform, gaze never leaving Wynonna.

 

Then, its jaw gaped wide and the Allagís let out a piercing shriek that shook the church rafters.

 

“Run!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“There it is! I see it, Eva!” Sienna exclaimed excitedly when she could finally see the ripple of flowing water through the branches just ahead of them.

 

She supported the other girl’s bad side as they gingerly stepped over the mossy rocks to get closer to the bank. The brook wasn’t huge, but large enough that it wouldn’t be possible to wade across. Closer to the water’s edge, the mud was flat and packed enough to allow for easier travel. Due to its depth near the center, even the brook ran silent in this silent forest; few rocks broke up the current’s flow, and the bottom was obscured by a thick layer of silt perpetually stirred up.

 

Eva’s good foot slipped on a particularly slick stone close to the water’s edge, causing her to instinctually try to recover on her broken ankle. The searing protest of pain from her injured foot made her cry out as she fully collapsed into the shallow bank of the brook.

 

Sienna scrambled to pull her friend back up out of the water and helped her sit on the muddy ground, so she could get a better look at her ankle.

 

“Please don’t tell me I twisted it again. I can’t bear another straightening; I’d sooner lose the damn foot,” Eva stuffed her fist into her mouth to hold back the screams she felt rising from her chest as Sienna gently examined the break, feeling to see if it had worsened.

 

“It doesn’t seem any worse. Not that it was very good to start with,” Sienna wrinkled her nose, the gears visibly turning in her head. “We can stop for a few minutes so the pain can subside, but I don’t think it’d be good for us to stay in one place for too long. This forest is like those staircases in  _ Harry Potter _ they are just  _ always  _ changing!”

 

Eva squinted, “I...don’t follow.”

 

“The forest is like a maze that keeps changing all the time, even when you’re in it. I think  _ especially  _ when you’re in it. If we don’t keep moving, I think we may get lost all over again.”

 

“Then let’s not wait. My ankle is fine-as fine as it’s gonna be for now, anyway. It was just a slip, Sienna, but let’s keep moving.”

 

“Are you sure? A few minutes is probably fine-”

 

“Things can go very wrong in a few seconds. A few minutes is too big a gamble to take on a bad ankle.”

 

Sienna thought about protesting- it was clear Eva could barely stand to move with her injury- but she also knew she was right. Every second longer they spent in the Pine Barrens was a second too long.

 

“Okay. Here, grab my shoulder-” Sienna squatted to help Eva get a hold around her shoulders and then slowly lifted her up to standing position.

 

“I really hope we’re getting close to the outskirts of Purgatory by now,” Eva groaned as she took tender steps forward, Sienna careful to match her stride.

 

They had only been travelling for a few minutes in the familiar silence when Sienna stopped abruptly. Eva nearly stumbled a second time with the sudden loss of momentum, and she gripped at the younger girl’s shoulders to keep her balance. Looking around, she couldn’t see anything, but Sienna had a dazed look in her eyes as she slowly turned her head behind them, towards the brook. Without warning, she turned her body around to walk back towards the water, leaving Eva to fall into the mud with an agonized cry.

 

“Sienna! What the hell are you doing?”

 

The young girl turned back to Eva and smiled, “Don’t you hear her singing?” She shook her head in disbelief, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

Eva quickly shook her head in response, “No- no I don’t! And remember  _ I’m  _ the one with the inexplicable super hearing!”

 

“My Mommy is singing, and I love her so much…” Sienna turned away from Eva again, and continued walking to the brook’s still waters.

 

Eva pushed herself forward, so that she was now belly down in the mud with her arms underneath her, ready to try to push herself up. “Sienna, your moms are not out here and you  _ know  _ that! There’s no singing!”

 

Sienna didn’t seem to hear her friend anymore. Unheard to Eva, the only sound reaching Sienna was the soft, warm voice of her mother singing her favorite lullaby.

 

_ Catch a falling star and put in your pocket, _

_ Save it for a rainy day. _

_ Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, _

_ Never let it fade away. _

 

She reached the waves lapping at the muddy shores and continued walking into the water without stopping. “Mommy, I missed you so much...don’t stop singing…”

 

To Eva’s horror, the previously still surface of the brook shook and parted as a grotesque creature rose up from the depths mere yards in front of Sienna, who seemed completely unfazed. If anything, she seemed delighted to see the beast.

 

It was the size of a large man, with scaly, dark green skin coating its entire body. What little hair it had was long, black, and plastered onto its elongated face; a face which consisted of an enormous nose and a wide mouth drooped in a permanent frown. It wore a brown fur coat, quite similar to Inuit attire, with a large open hood behind. One of its deathly thin, clawed hands reached out to stroke Sienna’s cheek in a mimic of a soothing touch. But the most striking thing was its eyes- they were white. Only white, and vacant and staring.

 

Yet somehow they still looked hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took longer; as you can see it's a whopper of a chapter and I actually ended up splitting the original chapter 14 into 14 and 15. Grad school is kicking into full gear so I have a lot of obligations to keep up with but I'm keeping this one up there as I do some writing each day when I get my coffee break. I want to state again that I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading y'all's comments! Seriously- they give me life. I am like Tinkerbell. My last hiatus was partly due to feeling discouraged in my writing and comments really really help prevent that. For anyone who maybe wants to comment but isn't sure what to say, do you have a favorite scene or line that has happened so far? Or a fave character (ps I already know it's Sienna)?
> 
> Also, I have some BTS goodies for you guys.
> 
> The monster that is charming Sienna is an Inuit monster called a Qalupalik. Here is an artist rendition done for a children's book by an Inuit author to help you visualize: https://inhabitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/qalupalik_image-650x300.jpg
> 
> The Allagis was thought up way before the commercials for that horror movie started I swear. It is actually inspired by two of the most terrifying monsters I have ever seen in media; The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth and Honorius from The Bartimaeus Trilogy. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is horribly underrated and if you are tired of Harry Potter, love the irreverent writing style of Wynonna Earp, and want a book about British wizards that acknowledges colonialism and classism, THIS SERIES IS FOR YOU. Seriously. Read it.
> 
> Finally, character theme music. I use character theme songs to help me write and I want to share them. Here's two:
> 
> Sienna- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4QI84zZPWg  
> Eva- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDgPeKs6sZ8


	15. Hail Mary

**The Paroisse Catholique, Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“Wynonna, how did you piss off a _nun_? Aren’t they supposed to be on our side!?” Waverly shouted over the roar of the Allagís above as they scrambled down the trembling spiral staircase.

 

“I don’t know, Waves; I can’t tell you how many times Sister Bernadette made that  _ exact _ noise at me for stealing uniforms from the boys’ locker room,” Nicole commented as she jumped off of the final step to the cracked and cobbled ground. She wasted no time turning around to guide everyone else off of the stairs safely in the darkness as the structure began to crumble above their heads, rock and marble dust raining down.

 

“Amen; nuns have never liked me,” Wynonna held up a hand to high-five Nicole as she brushed past her, which was met with a barely visible eye roll in the dimming candlelight. Wynonna rolled her eyes in response and smacked her friend on the shoulder before spinning on her heels to face their foe. She took several steps back- partly to get a clearer view of the chamber’s entrance above, and partly to get away from the shower of falling stones. She held Peacemaker firmly in her right hand, barrel aimed at the growing flames that illuminated the Allagís’s silhouette against the crypt walls at the peak of the spire. By its shadow alone, the beast could be seen turning to face the kneeling, praying Cult demon. Caligula hadn’t budged an inch since the beast’s awakening.

 

It was clear he had already given up.

 

Another piercing shriek sent more of the ancient roof tumbling from the rafters, and the shadow of the Allagís- dancing across the blooming flames- reached out with a long, bony arm to seize Bulshar’s lackey by the throat. It lifted him from the floor where he knelt, never taking its gaze away from his amber one. Caligula seemed paralyzed under the force of that single, bright eye as it swivelled erratically in evaluation of him.

 

The Allagís appeared to make up its mind on the utility of the demon, and it was not a decision in his favor.

 

The chipped, skeletal jaw of the nun twitched and popped as it disarticulated into a gape that grew as wide as a feeding serpent’s. With the strength of an iron grip, it pulled Caligula even closer, so that there were only inches between the terrified demon and his captor. Instead of emitting another scream, the Allagís took in an immense breath. With each second that the beast seemed to suck in the air around them, Caligula’s form shrank smaller and smaller. His skin and muscles withered, desperately clinging to his bones. His once glowing eyes deflated and sunk deep within their sockets. His lips crumbled into nothing, leaving only a striking row of sharp, pointed teeth exposed. His dark hair, which had been concealed under the black cowl of his robe, fell to the crypt floor in clumps as it could no longer cling to his desiccating scalp. When it seemed that there could be nothing left of the intruding demon to consume, the Allagís wrenched its jaws shut and unceremoniously tossed the shriveled remains to the side. Caligula’s dull, dead amber eyes were left gazing, fear etched with them, at the shattered statue of the Matron.

 

Wynonna subconsciously took more steps backwards as the scene unfolded before them like a twisted shadow puppet play. She knew she needed to create distance- as much as she could- between her people and the stairs, the chamber, and this Allagís. As she retreated, she instinctively held out her free arm in front of the rest of her team. The fingers of her left hand searched on their own accord for Alice’s shoulder, where they gripped her on contact as if to confirm she was still there.

 

“Wynonna, we need a game plan, NOW!” Nicole whispered in her friend’s ear when they all saw the Allagís stumble through the crypt’s doorway, still a bit unstable in its corporeal form. But that didn’t stop the Eye of Saint Ephram from knowing its target; it quickly rolled around to fixate on Wynonna.

 

And with that gaze boring into her eyes, Wynonna could feel a numbing paralysis settling in her limbs, down to her bones. It took more willpower than she expected to rip her eyes away and look to Alice, then to the rest of her group.

 

“I don’t know how- I have no  _ fucking  _ clue how- but we have got to get that Eye. It’s what we came here for, and I doubt ‘Pater’ is going to give up on retrieving it. And while this bitch is nasty, I think him having the Eye will be  _ mucho peor _ .”

 

An irregular shuffle, scrape, and dragging sound from further down the hallway- the direction they had come- made Alice turn her head. Even with the light from the fire above them, it was still far too dark to see further than a few feet ahead. But she could definitely hear it: long, rasping and clanging sounds, like claws on stone. Rattles and thuds like rainmakers peppered in between the dragging to create an eerie marching beat. Alice fumbled with the flashlight that she had stowed in her belt. Blindly feeling for the switch, she found it and flicked it on, pointing it down the hall where the sounds seemed to be emanating- and getting louder.

 

She instantly wished she had just kept what was coming hidden in the dark.

 

The sudden flash of Alice’s light caught the others’ attention, and when she saw what was closing in on them from behind, Wynonna wasted no time grabbing Alice by the arm and yanking her through the half-collapsed doorway to the old Convent. Alice had to duck quickly to avoid banging her head on the top of the marble archway, which now sat at an angle halfway down the original height of the entrance. Waverly and Nicole followed closely, with Dolls crawling through last. He never lowered his gun from the doorway. Obviously, it wouldn’t stop the supernatural forces advancing on them, but he hoped it could at least slow them down long enough to formulate a plan.

 

“Okay- this mission just took the absolute  _ worst  _ turn it could possibly take!”

 

“I’m very aware of that fact, Waves; Peacemaker doesn’t want to shoot the demon, the Eye is physically  _ part  _ of said demon, oh and this demon can create insta-mummies out of other demons so it’d probably have a field day with our squishy bodies. What I need to know is- has that big brain of yours got  _ anything _ , even a nibble, on an Allagís?” Wynonna hazarded a glance at the semi-hidden doorway they had escaped through. Nothing seemed to have reached it yet, but she could clearly hear the sound of the nun’s skeleton thumping its way down the spiral stairs to where it had last seen its prey.

 

Waverly hit the barrel of her own flashlight as it sputtered to life. With the added illumination from each roving flashlight beam, the team could see that they must be sheltered in the old sleeping quarters. Remains of wooden bed posts leaned against the walls, occasionally wrapped in torn linens that likely used to be bed sheets. But what caught Waverly’s eye were the murals adorning the four walls that surrounded them. The frescos were chipped and heavily faded with age, but the larger-than-life figures they depicted still held a mesmerizing power. Nuns kneeling in fervent prayer, tall beings with glorious wings that stood before them, caricatures of demons all acted out their story before her eyes.

 

And then the scriptures written in a scrawling Latin hand across the bottom of each mural provided clarity.

 

“I haven’t read about anything called an Allagís, no. But I think everything that happened was recorded right here…” Waverly stepped up to the mural that appeared to be the first in the four part story. Here, nuns worshipped at their cathedral altar, heads bowed in respect. But instead of the Matron or another typical religious figure at the head of the altar, there stood giant, robed men. Each one had a pair of snow-white feathered wings sprouting from his back. One held out his hand, palm up, to the praying nuns. Sitting atop it was a single, blue eye.

 

“This mural says that one day, three of God’s angels visited the convent and bestowed upon them a mission; to protect a Holy relic from the body of Saint Ephram from all evil who wished to possess it.”

 

“And this second one-” Waverly moved over to the next in the series. Here, a woman who could only be the Matron gently cradled the Eye in her hands, looking down upon it with reverence. Before her stood one of the angels, who held his hand to the top of her head. Above them both, a bright white light seemed to come down from the sky and surround the Matron.

 

“-This one says that the Matron volunteered to be the guardian of the Eye to spare her Sisters. She was afraid, but Sariel told her she would become one with a  _ caeli bestia  _ named Allagís who would smite any whom came to steal the relic.”

 

“So the poor woman was possessed? By a...not-demon?” Nicole quietly asked, suddenly feeling pity for the shambling creature outside.

 

“Apparently,” Waverly sighed. “ _ Caeli bestia  _ literally translates to ‘Heaven’s beast’, so I take it we aren’t dealing with a demon.

 

“What’s the third mural say?” Alice nodded towards the disturbing image that came next. The Matron stood in a crypt that looked just like the one at the top of the spire. She held her hands out in an open and welcoming gesture, eyes fixed firmly ahead of her. Her expression could only be described as somber. Around her, the other nuns took turns coating her body in a thick, gray cement. It had already encased her legs and was in the process of covering her abdomen. Another nun stood to the side, carefully holding the Eye and watching her Sisters work.

 

“The angels said that Allagís needed a mortal vessel in order to remain on Earth. The Matron was to become this vessel. Her body was encased in stone to make her like a Saint- incorruptible-”

 

“-Clearly that didn’t work like they planned,” Wynonna chipped in.

 

“-And when only her face remained exposed to the light of day, Sister Mary Catherine removed the eye of her Matron, and in its place put the Holy relic of Saint Ephram. She had the sight of the angels…”

 

“Holy shit, they did that to her when she was still alive?” Alice couldn’t take her eyes off the painted scene, “But-but those were  _ angels _ , right? Why would the good guys do something so horrific?”

 

“People often forget, angels have never been depicted as gentle or sweet. They’re soldiers. And they’ll do whatever they have to to complete their mission,” Waverly answered.

 

A chorus of loud banging and growls from the hall brought them back to the present, and the sense of urgency flooded back.

 

“Fourth mural, Waverly- does it say how to stop an Allagís?” Dolls shouted, refusing to take his eyes off the approaching skeletons. They were far too close for his liking by now, so he cocked his gun and prepared to fire.

 

“Fourth mural, yes!” Waverly rushed to the last painting in the series, “It just says that two decoy eyes were placed in the Matron’s hands when the statue was carved over her body...Allagís sees through the Eye and uses the body as a vessel...and he indiscriminately smites anyone?” She shrugged her shoulders and offered a pained grin to Dolls, “There’s nothing about how to stop him because I don’t think the angels wanted to leave behind instructions.”

 

“Fantastic; so somehow remove the Eye from the Matron’s skull, while the Allagís inside tries to smite us, and we get what we came for while blinding the creature?”

 

“Oh, and don’t forget the skeleton army. Wait, are those Allagís too?” Alice’s eyes grew wide with panic. One Allagís sounded like plenty.

 

Waverly shook her head, “Highly doubtful; I’m guessing they’re puppets...like what Constance Clootie used to do.” She sighed and rolled her eyes at Wynonna, who pointed a finger at her younger sister.

 

“ _ You  _ owe me boozy cupcakes-”

 

She was cut off by the thunderous banging of the army of nuns slamming themselves against the wall that separated the sleeping quarters from the hall. The roar of the Allagís encouraged them to push harder against the barrier. Despite the wall being made of stone, the sheer number of bodies hitting it combined with its immense age meant that it quickly started to crumble under the pressure.

 

An idea clicked in Wynonna’s mind, and she quickly grabbed something from the rubble on the floor.

 

“If they’re really puppets, that means they’re just holding together by a thread. And a smashed skele-zombie is a useless skele-zombie,” Wynonna winked at Waverly and tossed her a long, iron candlestick she had found in the remains of what likely used to be a bedside altar. Waverly caught the metal rod in both hands and gave it a test  _ whack  _ against the nearest wall. The stone chipped, but not the metal. It would hold.

 

“Everyone take one and save your bullets! Smash the Sisters and keep an eye on the Allagís- we need a way to get close and  _ not  _ die,” Wynonna holstered Peacemaker-useless thing seemed to only want to shoot proper demons, anyways- and wielded her candlestick like a batter on plate. The banging against the wall in front of them intensified; all it took was another ear-splitting shriek from the Allagís to send one section tumbling down to the ground. Through the billowing cloud of dust, the first of the skeletal nuns crawled toward the waiting team.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**The Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“Sienna, I am telling you that is  _ not  _ your mother!” Eva crawled towards the river bank where the young girl was wading further and further out to the hideous beast. With the fiery pain that shot up her leg every time her ankle shifted, she couldn’t move nearly fast enough. On top of that, the closer she got to the water, the thicker and wetter the mud became. Her arms started to sink each time she tried to push forward, the wet suction fighting to keep her in place.

 

“ _ Sienna _ ! That thing is trying to enchant you! Your real moms are going to  _ murder  _ me if you get yourself abducted!” Eva yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping she could somehow break through the creature’s spell. She tried to make another push forward, now within feet of the water’s edge, but found that her good foot had become wedged in a particularly sticky patch of muck. She gingerly tried to use her bad foot to push off of a solid tree root, but even the slightest pressure had her muscles giving out in agony.

 

The beast-  _ qalupalik _ , a strange yet familiar voice spoke through her memories- met Eva’s frantic eyes and lifted the corners of its drooping mouth in what approximated a grin. It then chortled out a sound that could best be described as a raspy, garbling roar.

 

“Oh, you think you’re funny, you overgrown algae sack? Pick on someone your own damn size,” Eva reached into the sulfurous mud and threw a fistful as hard as she could at the Qalupalik. The mud hit the creature on its bulbous nose, abruptly stopping the laughter. It responded to the older girl’s taunts by raising itself higher on its hind legs, now reaching close to six feet tall.

 

Something seemed to have changed for Sienna with the Qalupalik distracted. She lowered her arms slowly and blinked, seeming to just realize that she was waist-deep in the creek.

 

“...Eva?...W-why am I in the water?” She turned to see her friend lying on the bank, covered in mud, mid throw with another ball of muck in one hand.

 

“Sienna, run to shore now!” Eva yelled, throwing the second fist of mud at the creature, “Don’t turn around!”

 

But it was too late. Sienna had heard the splashing behind her as the Qalupalik tried to dodge the second projectile from Eva and on instinct had turned around. She felt her heart stop when she saw the blubbery creature towering over her, vacant white eyes locked on her.

 

In a flash, the Qalupalik grabbed Sienna in its long, bony hands and lifted her clear from the water as if she weighed nothing to it. 

 

“You put her down, you son of a bitch!” Eva screamed, feeling the rush of panic hit her veins and numb her nerves. She tried again to use her broken foot to push her good one free from its trap, but it was still too weak. The cloth hood draped over the Qalupalik’s back billowed open, and the creature started to try to wrestle Sienna into it. The girl aimed kicks at its face, mainly hitting the giant nose that made such an easy target. 

 

“My Mama and Auntie are going to send you to  _ Hell _ ! They’re the  _ Earps _ !” Sienna shrieked, not letting up her struggling. But this declaration didn’t seem to phase the creature at all; it rolled its neck to bring the hood around to the front so that Sienna was now just inches above it.

 

“And before they do, so will I! For good measure!” Eva could feel the tears rushing down her cheeks as her voice choked up on the last words. The futility of struggling was becoming more and more evident. Her foot hadn’t budged and there was no way to she could put any weight on the other one. She was well and truly stuck.

 

With a final scream, the Qalupalik dropped Sienna into the hood, which immediately pulled shut like a drawstring bag. The girl’s kicking feet could still be seen punching at the cloth from the inside, but the fabric had muffled her voice.

 

“ _ NO _ ! You-let her go- now-” Eva’s voice halted and dropped an octave; her throat felt like it had been rubbed raw by rocks, and her voice rasped like it too. Her pupils blew wide, and in front of her, Eva didn’t see the creek anymore; she saw a rocky mountainside illuminated by only the moonlight. An ancient-looking man stood on the rocks, holding a small boy by his hair. She could see the terror in his eyes as he looked right into hers.

 

Eva’s lips curled back as she let out an inhuman snarl.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**The Paroisse Catholique, Pine Barrens, Alberta**

“Batter up!” Alice swung the heavy candlestick at the nearest skeleton, knocking its skull clean off with a  _ thwack _ . The rest of the body stopped abruptly on impact, seeming confused by its sudden headlessness. Its hesitation gave Alice the opportunity to take another swing at the torso, which shattered its core and sent the rest of the bones tumbling to the ground.

 

“ _ Ack _ , that was a lame-ass one-liner,” she muttered under her breath as she took a shot at the next closest skeleton from behind.  _ Thwack _ . And after that one the next-  _ thwack _ \- and the next-  _ thwack _ \- and the next-  _ thwack _ . Alice tossed her hair back out of her eyes and stopped a moment to catch her breath. Demon hunting was taking way more upper body strength than she had anticipated.

 

_ No wonder they’re all so ripped. _

 

“Alice, head in the game or you lose it!” She whipped her head towards her mother’s voice, only to see another candlestick midair and fast-approaching. She ducked just in time for it to zip over her head and smash right into the ribcage of a one-armed nun who had been reaching for her hair. The force of impact sent it falling backwards, disarticulating its knees in the process. Alice got back to her feet and extracted the weapon from the pile of bones.

 

“Keep your eyes on the enemy at all times,” Wynonna scolded, grabbing back her candlestick.

 

Alice huffed and rolled her eyes, “Oh yeah-” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the sudden absence of their main target. “Where’s the Allagís, then?”

 

“Right where I left it! Dumb bitch was trying to climb-” Wynonna spun around, looking through the chaos, trying to find the Eye that she had been tracking up until then. The bright blue beacon was nowhere to be seen. There were, however, a set of shining, slimy handprints trailing up the cathedral wall.

 

“Shit!” Wynonna muttered under her breath, “I look away for two seconds-”

 

“-and you lose it,” Alice smirked, nudging Wynonna in the back with the round base of the candlestick.

 

“Alright, smartass. Just keep your wits about you. Especially now that Sister’s gone AWOL.”

 

“And she seems to be getting pretty comfortable with how limbs work,” Alice added before striking an approaching skeleton square across the chest. It stumbled backwards, but didn’t fall- so Wynonna quickly followed with a blow that shattered its backbone and sent it tumbling to the floor.

 

“All the more reason to find her as quickly as possible,” On the ‘possible’, Wynonna’s breath fogged in front of her face. She stared where it had dissipated, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Alice, also caught off guard, blew out a puff of air. The cloud of fog that marked its track confirmed that the temperature had indeed taken a nosedive within a matter of seconds. The two looked down at their feet, where a crackling sound had started. Begnning at the soles of their shoes and spreading outwards, crystals of ice grew in the shape of spiderwebs, creeping along the cracks in the stone floor.

 

Wynonna glanced up and met Alice’s eye, recognition hitting her, “Bulshar’s a dick, but he’s not stupid; he wouldn’t send the Three Stooges to collect a powerful supernatural relic.”

 

The realization started to dawn on Alice too, “But he would send stupid, easy-to-kill, decoys to awaken the Allagís-”

 

“-so the Eye is ripe for plucking for his actual errand-demon-”

 

“-Willa,” they finished simultaneously.

 

The piercing roar of the Allagís rang out through the church rafters arching above. It had the Matron’s body clinging to the sides of one of the dozens of arches, head turned around 180 degrees so that the Eye could swivel and focus back on Wynonna and Alice.

 

What it didn’t see was the black cloud manifesting behind it as the room temperature continued to drop lower and lower.

 

The Allagís rocked back on its legs, as if preparing to jump. But before it could, it was torn away from the rafter by long, icy claws and thrown to the stone ground. The strength of the Allagís within the body kept the Matron’s skeleton intact against the impact, unlike her sisters. 

 

Wynonna backtracked and pulled Alice with her, harshly whispering in her ear, “We’re gonna use Willa to our advantage today. I’ve had enough of her bullshit.”

 

The form of Willa manifested above the nun’s prone body before it had the chance to get back to its feet. Without preamble, she grabbed at its skull and tried to use her long claws to extract the Eye from its socket. At the same time, the Allagís opened its jaw wide and inhaled, using its arms to grip Willa’s shoulders and lift itself closer. Willa’s cloudy blue eyes faltered, getting lost as Caligula’s had. But only for a moment. She pulled herself out of the Allagís’s grip and punched it square in the teeth. The force knocked them out, but the  _ caeli bestia  _ was unperturbed. It leapt up on all fours and crawled at a surprising speed straight at where Wynonna and Alice were standing.

 

Seems it didn’t forget the face of who was present when it awoke.

 

Alice and Wynonna ran in opposite directions, and the Allagís quickly changed course to follow the elder Earp. 

 

Willa looked between Alice, now alone and vulnerable, and the goddamn relic she was supposed to retrieve. The thought of Wynonna being smited to Hell made her smile, and it would certainly make her life easier, no doubt. But the satisfaction of watching it happen at her own hands was something she was just not ready to give up, especially to the angels’ guard dog. And Alice- nothing more than a thorn in her backside- could be dealt with any day she chose. She had to get that Eye, for the greater mission.

 

Willa disappeared in a swarm of dark tendrils and rapidly re-appeared in front of her sister. Before she could crash into her, Willa waved her hand and threw Wynonna off to the side, clearing the path for the Allagís running straight at her. Wynonna slid across the ice-covered stones and scrambled back up to her feet. She pulled out Peacemaker and loaded the barrel, preparing to shoot her sister for the Eye if needed. A part of her hoped Willa wouldn’t survive the Allagís, since it would mean the otherwise inevitable end wouldn’t come: her killing her sister. Again. But she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that Willa had been forged more powerful by the flames of Hell than the angels had bargained for when selecting their guard.

 

The Allagís didn’t have the chance to change its course away from Willa. The demon thrust her hand upwards, claws up, and with it grew a wall of ice that enveloped the skeleton, immobilizing it. She stepped forward and punched a hole in the ice where the face was, exposing the Eye. It was now rolling around in its socket frantically, sensing Willa had it cornered.

 

She took her claws and inserted them around the sides of the eyeball. With ease, she plucked the slimy sphere from the ancient socket, and held it up pinched between two fingers. A gun fired nearby, and Willa felt a shot of pain in her shoulder where Peacemaker’s bullet had hit. She turned her gaze over to see Wynonna aiming her stolen gun right at her. All over again.

 

The Eye was retrieved;  _ now  _ she could clean house.

 

Willa pocketed the Eye in her coat and dissipated before Wynonna could fire another shot. With the Allagís rendered inert, the last of the puppets had fallen inanimate to the ground, freeing Waverly, Nicole, and Dolls from the duty of holding them back.

 

“Is she gone?” Nicole yelled across the hall, tossing her candlestick aside and pulling her gun instead.

 

“I’m highly doubtful she wouldn’t try to take Peacemaker,” Wynonna responded, cocking her gun again and looking around for a sign that Willa was about to reappear. The coldness in the air hadn’t lifted a bit. She was still around.

 

Alice nervously reached for her own pistol-  _ Thank you, Waverly _ \- it was still loaded. Her shaking hands wouldn’t have made it very easy to slot the bullets into the chamber in the dark. The silence was deafening as they waited for Willa’s next move.

 

It came behind Alice without warning; freezing hands wrapped around her waist and neck and lifted her from the ground in the span of a second. Willa’s harsh voice whispered against her ear, “I think Malphas will absolutely  _ adore  _ you, you freak of nature. I think your head on a pike would be  _ very  _ motivating for the Ascended. What do you think, Wynonna?-” she added more loudly, “Is she a better gift skinned or alive?”

 

Alice felt Willa tear her gun from her hands and drop it to the ground below them. Her hand wriggled, but trapped in the demon’s embrace she didn’t have much range of motion.

 

Below, she could just make out Wynonna aiming Peacemaker right at Willa’s forehead. She couldn’t make out her expression, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed her fear.

 

“Willa, you want  _ Peacemaker _ . Why waste your opportunity with kidnapping Alice?”

 

“You know why, Wynonna. Because it makes you  _ squirm _ ,” Willa began to laugh a chilling cackle that echoed off of the cold stone walls. She moved her arm to adjust her grip around Alice’s neck, and it was in that moment that the young Earp took advantage of the looser hold; she turned her head and bit down on Willa’s fingers as hard as she could. The demon screamed and instinctively let go of her torso to try to pry the girl’s mouth from her hand. With the arm restraining her body gone, Alice opened her mouth and let herself fall the fifteen or twenty feet to the ground.

 

Wynonna wasted no time opening fire on Willa as soon as Alice was out of the way, the other three adults joining in. Under the rain of gunfire, Willa started to dissipate back into her amorphous form, unable to hold herself together. Her voice rang out across the cathedral before she disappeared completely:

 

“If you continue this  _ idiotic _ quest to stop the rise of Bulshar, you will lose more than your precious brats, sisters! The Allagís was child’s play!”

 

“And you’re a petulant kid who wants her stupid toy back!” Waverly yelled.

 

But Willa had already gone. As soon as she had disappeared for good, the ice started to melt and the temperature rose back to normal. Wynonna rushed forward to where Alice was laying on the ground and knelt by her side.

 

“What the hell were you  _ thinking _ ?”

 

Alice slowly lifted herself up on her elbows, waiting for the world to stop spinning before she spoke, “Thinkin’ being ‘ducted is  _ not  _ a fun idea.”

 

“Quick, we need to get out of here before the Allagís is unfrozen. It may be blind but the creature is still inside and it is going to be  _ mad _ ,” Dolls came up behind Alice and gently looped his arms under her shoulders to bring her slowly to her feet. When he could feel that she was steady, he let her stand alone.

 

“All this shit we went through and Willa still got the Eye. Now Pater is one up on us,” Wynonna muttered as she got to her feet. Alice blinked and her eyebrows shot up, as if she suddenly remembered something. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a bright blue eyeball that stared blankly ahead, no longer any life behind it.

 

Wynonna gaped and looked between the Eye and her daughter, “How the  _ hell  _ did you get that from her?”

 

Alice shrugged her shoulders and smiled weakly, “She was too busy tauntin’ you to keep track of my hand and her pockets. Also, pickpocketin’ is fun.”

 

Wynonna let out a brusk laugh and shook her head in disbelief.

 

“Okay; then let’s get the hell out of the Pine Barrens. It feels like we’ve been here forever.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**The Pine Barrens, Alberta**

 

“Pick on-someone- who can...FIGHT you!...You coward!” Eva choked the words out between the growls involuntarily escaping her lungs. Each labored breath turned into a snarl. Her head started to throb, and it felt like her skull was compressing and squeezing her brain tighter and tighter. The pain made it harder to see, harder to breathe, harder than it already was to struggle free from the mud. But even through the searing pain that was spreading down her neck and across her back with the flow of her own blood, so loud and so visceral- a single thought kept pushing its way through the excruciating fog and to the forefront of her mind:

 

_ No more blood on my hands. _

 

The thought brought Eva a wave of strength she didn’t know she had within her. She blindly reached out both arms and pressed her palms into the mud, pushing her upper body clear of the ground. What bit her arms sank didn’t matter anymore, as they were elongating by the second. Muscle rapidly built up under her skin, re-aligning itself around cracking and shifting bones. Her skin sprouted a fuzz that quickly grew into a thick coat of dark gray fur, starting at her hands and continuing in a wave down her whole body. Her core grew stouter and more muscular by the second, ripping Jeremy’s t-shirt to pieces. Her eyes darkened, seeming to become all pupil- and they never let the Qalupalik nor his prey out of their sight.

 

Upon hearing the progressively deepening growls and erratic movement from where Eva lay, the monster had stopped wading further out into the bank- sack floating behind it- and turned to see what the commotion was. Disconcertingly, instead of the good-as-dead girl it had left behind, it now saw a new beast transforming before its eyes.

 

Eva’s good foot-now a paw sporting large, thick claws- planted itself in the muddy ground, lifting her up on three legs. The skin over her injured ankle continued to move and shift rapidly as the bones and tendons underneath transformed and rearranged themselves; bone fragments clicked and snapped back into their rightful places, the joint realigned, and with a quick kick against a tree root the makeshift splint was broken. Eva put her weight on the healed limb, and stood without a trace of pain. Her ears flicked forward and she stared down the Qalupalik, who was now grabbing at the sack with its long fingers and making to descend into the water’s depths with Sienna.

 

The wolf snarled and leapt into the creek, clearing the distance between her and the Qalupalik in only a few bounds. She sank her teeth into the nearest arm, eliciting a chilling screech from the overgrown fish. The Qalupalik bucked up on its hind legs and thrashed its arm, trying to toss Eva to the side. But she only bit down harder, using her front paws that still had some of the dexterity of a human hand to grab onto the creature’s shoulder. The scales were slippery, however, and with a full body roll onto its side and into the water, the Qalupalik managed to shake free of its attacker.

 

In the struggle, it had let go of Sienna, who had started to float back towards the shore. Her hands pushed out against the animal hide that kept her afloat, blindly grappling for a rock or root that could act as a handhold. After a few moments of searching, she hit a submerged root and pushed against the hide to curl the tips of her fingers around it and stop her movement. She pushed out with her other hand, reaching further out for a second things to grip. When she hit a jagged rock that provided just enough purchase against the surface of the bag, she grabbed it as best she could and pushed forward. Slowly, with each step, Sienna rolled her bag closer and closer to land.

 

The Qalupalik bleated in frustration when it saw its dinner escaping, but before it could swim over and retrieve it, Eva landed squarely on its back and bit down on the exposed neck- hard. Underneath her canines she could feel the fragile bones crush to pieces with the force of her bite. The Qalupalik screamed, which quickly turned into a gag when blood fell from the wound in its throat and entered its lungs-or gills, whatever it had. Its limbs thrashed and splashed in the water, but there was no chance it could toss the secured wolf this time. Underneath her, she felt the creature stop moving, and then go entirely limp as it fell with a final splash halfway up the bank. Only its head was left poking out of the water, eyes truly vacant now. Eva snarled and shook the Qalupalik’s neck a few more times, to be sure it was dead. When it didn’t stir any more, the wolf let go.

 

She stepped over its body and walked ashore on the muddy bank. The bag that contained Sienna had rolled up onto the mud, and its sides now squirmed as the girl inside tried to find a way out. Eva took one of her front paws and slashed it across the animal hide, tearing an opening that she could see through.

 

Sienna ripped the hole wider, wide enough that she could crawl out and sit on the cool- but now very welcome- mud. Her immediate reaction was glee.

 

“Oh my  _ god _ \- we did it! We beat a supernatural monster all on our own! Eva, we did-” her face faltered when she looked up to her friend, and instead saw the massive gray wolf sitting mere feet away from her. Fresh blood was still dripping from its jaws, peppering the mud around it. Sienna glanced behind her where the Qalupalik’s body lay absolutely still, barely jostled by the slow current.

 

Eva stared at Sienna, her expression difficult to read with the thrill of the kill still in her eyes. Sienna slowly got to her feet, careful to keep meeting her friend’s gaze.

 

“Eva, it’s me. I don’t know if you can understand me, but you’ve turned; you’re a werewolf and you’ve turned. That’s why you have these blank spots in your memory; you probably won’t even remember saving me. But you did- you  _ saved  _ me. Even when you turned you still saved me and risked yourself and I  _ knew  _ you would still be you, even in wolf form. But I need you to be human Eva again, please- we need to go home,” Sienna crept closer and closer as she spoke, holding a hand out like she had learned  to do when approaching a scared animal.

 

Eva blinked as Sienna’s hand gently pet the top of her head. Her eyes looked up to meet the young girl’s hazel ones, but all she could see were a set of dark brown eyes in the face of a small boy. He held her bloody cheeks in his hands and kissed her nose.

 

“Go home,  _ hermana _ , go home.”

 

Then Eva’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fainted, falling head first into the mud. Though she was unconscious, her body twitched and moved as her bones, muscles- everything- transformed back into their human form. Sienna quickly retrieved Doc’s now very dirty coat from where Eva had become stuck in the deeper mud- careful to not get stuck herself- and tossed it over Eva’s prone body. It looked like she would be going home with just a coat and no shoes after all.

 

After a couple of minutes, the movement beneath her skin had ceased, and her body was once again human. Sienna gently patted her still-bloody cheek to wake her up; while sleep was probably highly recommended after transforming into a werewolf and back again, the Pine Barrens were not the place to do it. Their run in with the Qalupalik had made that abundantly clear.

 

“Eva, Eva you have to get up. We still need to get out of this  _ goddamn _ forest before you can sleep,” Sienna gently pulled on her friend’s arm as she groaned in dissent.

 

“Why does my head feel like you smashed it with a boulder? Why do I taste iron?” Eva licked her lips and rubbed them with one hand, feeling her heart speed up when she saw the fresh, red blood on her fingertips. “Why am I bleeding?”

 

“You aren’t,” Sienna interjected, quickly regretting her comment as Eva looked at her in confusion, waiting for an explanation.

 

“Then...whose blood is in my mouth?” Eva gagged at the realization. She gathered the large coat around her body-  _ why am I naked again? _ \- and rushed to the water side. She quickly scooped handfuls of creek water into her mouth, rinsing and spitting out the dark blood. The metallic taste overpowered her senses and threatened to make her vomit.

 

In her peripheral vision, she caught the shape of a large, silent body laying in the waterbed. Looking up, she saw the hideous beast that had tried to abduct Sienna- and its neck was ripped apart. Blood pooled in the water around it. Blood that mirrored what Eva had just spit into the same creek.

 

“You killed that fish thing, Eva,” Sienna said quietly from behind her. “You...you turned into a wolf and you killed it and you  _ saved  _ me.”

 

Eva’s heart felt like it stopped in her chest. Pater’s words rang loud as cymbals in her ears:  _ You are nothing but a mutt and a scoundrel; and so, you shall be put down as one. _ He had turned her into a dog. He had made her literally nothing but a mutt. He had taken her memories, her home, her body-  _ and something so much worse _ she thought, as those brown eyes flashed across her memory again. But who they belonged to, who they were, was frustratingly out of reach. She pulled the coat tighter around her body, conscious of just how vulnerable he had made her. Her breaths turned into sobs as the realization hit her all at once. How much damage had she already done that she couldn’t even remember? Had she killed before?

 

The lingering taste of blood was the last straw; Eva wretched and vomited onto the ground. She felt a tight squeeze from behind as Sienna hugged her, which only made the sobs come stronger.

 

“Sienna, I’m a monster. I’m a monster and I  _ belong  _ out here. You nearly  _ died  _ for a monster!”

 

“You are  _ not  _ a monster. You are a werewolf. That fish thing was a monster- it wanted to eat me. You fought it to save me. You saved Alice from Willa. Monsters don’t save people. And you save people. That’s an Earpin’ fact.”

 

“That’s a what?” Eva couldn’t help but chuckle through her tears at the strange expression.

 

“I dunno; Auntie Nonna says it sometimes. I think it’s her polite way of saying ‘fuck’ when I’m around.”

 

Eva laughed. What a weird little family that had given her shelter.

 

“Do they know? Everyone else in your family, Sienna, about me?” She didn’t know what she would do if she couldn’t go back to the Earps again. The Cult had certainly not stopped hunting for her, and with unpredictable transformations she didn’t think she would last long on her own.

 

“Yeah they do; Jeremy figured it out from your blood samples. He actually is working on an antidote. It wouldn’t necessarily cure you, but it would help control it.”

 

Eva didn’t know what to think, “They...they aren’t afraid of me?”

 

Sienna shook her head, “Not anymore. They know you’re you and if you get this antidote you shouldn’t go full wolf anymore so then you’d just be Eva. And then there’s nothing to worry about.” The girl shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

When Eva didn’t respond, Sienna shrugged her wet backpack off her shoulders. She unzipped it and fished through the contents inside; waterproofing had kept them dry for the most part, and she pulled out the chocolate milk she had packed. She stabbed the plastic straw through the aluminum opening and handed it to Eva, who hesitantly took the drink.

 

“Chocolate milk is good and hydrating and stops nightmares,” she said definitively.

 

Eva took a sip, not one to argue when the young girl seemed so sure.

 

Above Sienna’s red hair, she saw a flash of golden light through the leaves. It was there and gone so quickly, she thought she may have imagined it. That is, until it appeared again, this time a bit lower, and maybe a bit brighter. A moment passed, and it flashed again. It didn’t have the intensity of a flashlight, or the movement of an insect. It seemed intelligent- alive. It flashed again.

 

“Sienna, something is here- look in the trees,” Eva whispered and pointed to where she saw the mysterious light flash again. But this time, it did not vanish; it kept its shape- a soft golden orb- and floated towards the two girls where they sat.

 

Eva reached for a stone to throw but Sienna stopped her arm, not taking her eyes off of the approaching light.

 

“It’s not dangerous, Eva. It’s here to help.”

 

“How can you be so sure? We’re in the Pine Barrens, where  _ everything  _ wants us dead or maimed.”

 

“I just feel it Eva- and it’s like a  _ real  _ feeling like I just know it’s true. Like how I knew you wouldn’t hurt me when you were a wolf.”

 

Eva was still skeptical. The light seemed to sense this, and it quickly detoured to the tree by where the older girl sat. It glowed brightly and brushed past the bark before circling back around to face the girls again. When Eva looked where it had touched, she saw a poorly formed letter carved into the tree:  **M** .

 

Sienna smiled widely when she saw the sign, “It’s Uncle Doc! He’s gonna guide us out of here! Eva, stand up, we have to follow him!” Sienna sprang to her feet and grabbed her backpack. Eva stood up and wrapped the coat around her body, only then realizing that her injured ankle no longer had any pain. She could put her weight on it and move it without an issue.

 

Sienna only waited long enough to see that Eva could stand and was going to follow her before she took off after the orb as it moved through the trees. Eva had no choice but to dash after her, still watching her feet so she didn’t trip again.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**The Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta**

 

It was the middle of the night by the time they got back to the police station. So as not to disturb the skeleton crew on duty for the graveyard shift, Nicole unlocked the back door that led directly to the Black Badge office. The latch clicked open and she pushed the heavy door inwards.

 

Unexpectedly, there were desk lights on across the room. She had thought Jeremy would be asleep by now after a long day with Sienna. She turned back to the rest of the group and held a finger to her lips, whispering, “Jeremy’s asleep at his desk. Let’s just drop off the Eye and try not to disturb him. I can stay as an extra pair of hands in case Willa or someone else comes snooping around for it.”

 

The others nodded and entered the office as quietly as they could, one by one. The door closed behind them with aloud groan and click as it relocked, which caused Jeremy to stir in his seat.

 

He groggily lifted his head and swivelled his chair around to face them. But instead of the tired greeting that was usual, he nearly jumped off of his chair and yelped out loud in shock. Quickly, he fumbled for the wall switch, flicking it to illuminate the entire office and the ragged, tired band that had come in.

 

Wynonna eyed him up and down, taken aback. “Jesus Christ, what happened to you? Playing around with the aging spell again?”

 

Jeremy’s hand flew to the prominent stubble growing across his neck and face. When they had left, he was clean-shaven as always. His clothes, usually a graphic tee and jeans, looked like they hadn’t been taken off or washed for days. He had prominent bags under his eyes only accentuated by the harsh office light.

 

“You...you guys are alive?” He finally spoke, wide eyes darting between each of his friends. Dolls took a step forward and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

 

“Yeah, Jeremy, we were just gone for the day, as we discussed. Are you okay?”

 

Jeremy shook his head repeatedly, “No no no no no no! You weren’t gone a  _ day _ ! How can-” Jeremy broke away from Dolls and started pacing in front of his desk where he had fallen asleep while working. Lying face up was a stack of Missing fliers, staring Alice and Wynonna.

 

“You were gone for two  _ weeks _ !” He cried, “You were gone for two weeks and I tried to call you, I went to the Pine Barrens to try to find you or a sign of you-  _ anything _ \- but you were  _ gone _ . The whole town has been searching everywhere for you!” He fell back in his seat, still clearly overwhelmed.

 

Wynonna smiled in disbelief and shook her head, “That’s impossible, Jeremy, all of us know just a day has passed. Jeremy why do you still look so freaked? We’re all right here!”

 

Jeremy glanced nervously at his bedroom, where the door burst open and Waverly rushed out, a blank look on her face. He seemed to panic all over again.

 

“Jeremy,” Waverly started, “Where’s Sienna?”

 

Before he could answer, the sound of two pairs of footsteps came running down the main corridor of the building. Sienna’s red hair poked through the doorway to Black Badge, and she froze when she saw her mothers looking right at her. Eva, clothed only in a large, brown trenchcoat, came up behind her and similarly froze when she sensed the mood.

 

Unable to bare the silence, Eva awkwardly raised a hand in a wave, “Hi guys?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this took forever to update but action scenes are very very difficult! I also got a nasty bit of depression that hit while I was unemployed, which slowed me down. Truly, reading comments motivates me through those rough patches and does help me update faster! But I hope you enjoyed this monster update!

**Author's Note:**

> ** I do not own any of the characters (except Eva and Sienna), they all belong to Syfy, Space Channel, and Emily Andras  
> ** Idea inspired by gifset posted by awbuckyno on tumblr  
> ** I'm a college senior applying for grad school so a set update schedule is elusive, but ASAP is my motto  
> ** Please leave kudos and comments as you deem appropriate!


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